But within a 20-second span late in regulation, Carolina kicked the Bruins in the teeth to tie the game and extend Boston's night.
At 18:57, with goalie Cam Ward pulled for an extra attacker, forward Ray Whitney took a backhand feed from linemate Andrew Ladd and slammed the puck into an open side of the net, making it a 2-1 game.
Then at 19:17, after Boston failed to clear the zone, forward Erik Cole jumped into the play and beat Thomas (45 saves), seemingly snatching a win away from the Bruins when they could taste the 2 points.
But after a scoreless overtime, a pair of youngsters grabbed the 2 points right back while Thomas blanked two Carolina shooters.
After Marco Sturm opened the shootout with a miss, Matt Cullen kicked off his attempt with an unusual move. Cullen charged the puck at first, hoping to push Thomas deep into his cage to open up more net, then slowed down as he waited out the netminder.
Thomas, however, didn't blink, forcing Cullen to make the first move, and the forward rang a shot off the post.
Kessel, Boston's second shooter, attacked the puck and tapped a forehand shot between Ward's wickets. Thomas came back to stone ex-Bruin Sergei Samsonov, then Krejci, who hasn't scored an official goal all season, calmly fired a wrister past Ward to ice the result.
Coach Claude Julien had been waiting to deploy Krejci in a shootout. In practice, the coaching staff noted that Krejci was burying his shootout attempts. On Feb. 8, when the Bruins went to the shootout against Buffalo, Julien had tapped Krejci as his No. 3 shooter. But Krejci wasn't needed after Kessel, the No. 2 man, beat goalie Ryan Miller.
"It's a confidence boost for him," Julien said. "Hopefully, now he'll find the bottom of the net in regulation time."
