Bruins end season with shootout win over Sabres

Boston Bruins' Shawn Thornton (22) and Buffalo Sabres' Robyn Regehr (24) fight in the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, April 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

It was Tim Thomas vs Jhonas Enroth in the final game of the season for both teams as the Sabres came to Boston to take on the Bruins. The Bruins would go down by two goals in the third period but come back to tie the game and send it to overtime. The Bruins would win the game in the shootout with should-be-Selke-winner Patrice Bergeron scoring the game winning goal in the shootout. Bruins won 4-3.

For the Bruins: Brian Rolston, Marty Turco, Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid and Torey Krugi were all scratched for this game.

Quick game summary
In the first period, Shawn Thornton got into a fight and Thornton dominated it. No surprise there.

Shawn Thornton vs Robyn Regehr

In the second period, Tyler Seguin scored his 28th goal of the season, making it 1-0 Bruins. Ex-Bruin Brad Boyes scored to tie the game 1-1 for the Sabres.

In the third period, Brad Boyes scored again, making it 2-1 Sabres. Less than two minutes later, Jason Pominville scored to make it 3-1 Sabres. Less than two minutes later, Tyler Seguin scored his 29th goal of the season, a power-play goal, to make it 3-2. Later, Brad Marchand scored his 28th goal of the season to tie the game 3-3.

In overtime no one scored so the game went to a shootout.

In the shootout, David Krejci was stopped, Tyler Ennis was stopped, Tyler Seguin was stopped, Brad Boyes was stopped, Patrice Bergeron scored, and Jason Pominville was stopped as the Bruins would win 4-3.

Tim Thomas made 25 saves on 28 shots in the game. Thomas finished the season going 35-19-1 with 5 shutouts, a 2.36 GAA and a .920 save percentage.

The three stars of the game were: Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin, and Brad Boyes.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 40-28 and hits 13-11. The Sabres led the game in faceoff wins 26-25 and blocked shots 18-5.

The Bruins went 1-for-4 on the power-play while the Sabres went 0-for-1.

Patrice Bergeron had 3 assists, was +2 and went 10-10 in the faceoff circle.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins with 6 shots.

Onto the playoffs
The Bruins finished the season going 49-29-4 with 102 points, second place in the Eastern Conference. It's not final yet who the Bruins will play in the first round of the playoffs but it's looking like the Washington Capitals. Stay tuned for the Bruins playoffs schedule.

*Update: Yup it's official, the Bruins will face the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs.