After 4 scoreless rounds of the Shootout, Claude Julien went off the board and tapped unlikely hero Benoit Pouliot as his 5th shooter. Â After arguably his worst game Monday night against his former team, the Canadiens, Julien came right back with Pouliot on the third line and in the shootout; it paid off. Â Pouliot came straight in on Sabres goalie Jhonas Enroth and ripped a shot high glove from between the face-off dots for the game winner. Â
Pouliot, along with the rest of the Bruins didn’t have a great start.  After Paul Gaustad challenged Lucic to the obligatory make-up fight, the B’s took several bad/questionable calls in the first period and ultimately found themselves down 2-0.  After Seguin scored on the power play in the Second period, the Sabres took advantage of a lucky bounce off a bruin skate to make it 3-1.  The bruins scored a late 3rd period goal from Big Z to cut the lead to 1 heading into the third.
After some nice passing work up the ice by Marchand, Seguin and Bergeron, Marchand picked up a loose puck to the left of Enroth and roofed it to tie it up at 3. Â The OT was back and worth with chances at both ends, but the goalies ultimately won that battle. Â Then came the shootout.
The majority of the shootout belonged to Thomas and Enroth who matched each other save for save before Pouliot ended it.  That’s 10 in a row for the Bruins who will take on Detroit  at 1:00 on Friday afternoon.
Across Enemy Lines
Want the Sabres perspective?  Head over to our friends at Sabre Noise to see what they’re saying about the game.
Three Stars
3rd Star- Tim Thomas- Thomas wasn’t spectacular but he was very good when it counted, especially the shootout.
2nd Star-Benoit Pouliot- Pouliot had a slow start but played much better in the 3rd and of course had the game winner.
1st Star-Zdeno Chara– It wasn’t flashy but, Big Z did it all tonight; was a force physically, scored a big goal, made a big save when Thomas was caught out of the net, and pounded Robyn Regehr during an important first period scrum.  The Bruins layed  a beat down on the Sabres for running Brad Marchand and Z capped it by easily handling Regehr.