"When we were struggling there, you kind of had the feeling that we weren't going to score. We weren't even getting dangerous opportunities," said Tim Thomas, who had 35 saves. "Now tonight, we had the feeling we could score any time we had it in their zone."
The Bruins, stuck in a 1-4-2 rut entering a six-game homestand, have now blown the doors off two clubs. They pounded Florida, 6-1, Tuesday. Last night before a sellout crowd of 17,565 at TD Banknorth Garden, they followed with another six-spot against a club looking for a jolt by acquiring former Boston University defenseman Ryan Whitney from Pittsburgh for forward Chris Kunitz and prospect Eric Tangradi.
Instead, the Ducks imploded.
Having watched Jean-Sebastien Giguere stop only five of eight shots, Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle yanked his starter at 3:43 of the second period after Chuck Kobasew gave the Bruins a 3-0 lead. Backup Jonas Hiller was just as shaky, as the Bruins poured two more second-period goals into the net and capped off the six-pack with a Byron Bitz strike at 13:41 of the third.
There were all kinds of goals. There was Matt Hunwick's winner at 17:54 of the first when he joined the rush and pushed a bad-angle shot past Giguere. Second-period wristers by Michael Ryder and Kobasew that Giguere should have stopped. The Ryder bank job, a play started by a long-distance pass from Thomas, who can hardly include himself in the stickhandling category of Martin Brodeur. And perhaps the softest goal of all: a Kobasew wrister past Hiller with 15.6 ticks remaining in the second period, ending any shot of an Anaheim rally.
