Thomas outduels Flyers' tandem

Peter Laviolette goes to his bullpen so often for a relief goaltender, he ought to think about hiring Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee as a consultant.

Laviolette played goalie roulette again last night, but this time his hand was not forced by ineffectiveness. Starter Brian Boucher was forced to leave about midway through the second period after absorbing a heavy slap shot to the area near his left wrist from Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk. Sergei Bobrovsky was called in from the bench and stopped six shots before Boucher returned for the start of the third period.

But it wasn't the Flyers goaltending that let them down in last night's 3-2 overtime loss. It was more that Boston's goaltender lifted the Bruins up.

Tim Thomas, who was relegated to spectator for last year's series against the Flyers, looked like his old Vezina Trophy-winning self in stopping 52 of the Flyers' 54 shots. James van Riemsdyk was the only Flyer to beat him, with a pair of first-period scores.

"We created a lot of chances today, but their goalie was pretty good today," Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen said.

Timonen failed to handle a wraparound pass from linemate Braydon Coburn that led to David Krejci's game-winner at 14:00 of overtime.

"I knew Cobie was going to pass it around the boards, but it kind of took a weird bounce, and I never got the puck," Timonen explained. "They changed [lines] . . . and it quick became a three-on-two."

Krejci took a feed from Nathan Horton and fired a shot past Boucher that snuck just under the crossbar. Confusion reigned as the shot initially was ruled to have hit the post. Play continued for another 17 seconds until a video replay confirmed the goal.

Boucher, who always speaks after games, declined to talk last night, possibly to conceal the nature of his injury. He made 32 stops on 35 Bruins attempts. Bobrovsky, who 100 years ago (or so it seems) was anointed the Flyers' playoff goalie, came off the bench and performed well as the Bruins carried play late in the second.

As Boucher departed, the Wells Fargo Center crowd began to chant, "Let's go, Bob." The outcome of an evening that started with the celebration of the United States' smoking out a Saudi madman from a Pakistani mansion was temporarily in the hands of a Russian. And though Bobrovsky held, it only makes sense that a Czech (Krejci) scored the game-winner off a feed from a Canadian (Horton) after a fumble by a Finn (Timonen).

"[Boucher] kept us in the game," Claude Giroux said. "He made some key saves; even [Bobrovsky], when he came in, made some key saves. I think the goalies were great today. It's just too bad that we couldn't help them with that third goal."

Timonen, like most of the players on the ice, knew right away Krejci's goal was good. The way Thomas was going, it was probably just a matter of time until the Bruins got a cleaner score. The Flyers set a team postseason record for shots in a period with 22 in the third.

Thomas led the league with a 2.00 regular-season goals-against average and set a record with a .938 save percentage. He is a finalist for the Vezina award, which he won in 2008-09, and if he plays the way he did last night, he'll be adding postseason hardware to his trophy case. Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference was asked when he could tell Thomas was at the top of his game.

"Training camp," he said, laughing. "He hasn't missed too many nights. Tonight was special; he was incredible. That third period on was a clinic. I don't even know what to say anymore. He is just unbelievable." *