The Toronto Maple Leafs outshot the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night, but they were thwarted at every turn by Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas.
Thomas turned aside 44 shots as the Bruins blanked the Maple Leafs 3-0 before a disgruntled crowd of 19,578 at the Air Canada Centre.
P.J. Axelsson (11), Tim Thomas and Brandon Bochenski enjoy a 3-0 win.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
It was Thomas's third shutout this season and 14th in the NHL.
"You know coming in [to Toronto] you're going to have a hard game," said Thomas, now a nifty 3-0-1 when facing 40-plus shots.
Stanislav Chistov, P.J. Axelsson and Jason York scored as the Bruins (29-26-4) registered their third consecutive victory and fifth in six games.
"It's a frustrating game to play against them," Maple Leafs defenceman Hal Gill said. "And they play it well."
Boston now trails ninth-place Toronto and the idle New York Islanders by four points in the Eastern Conference standings with a game in hand.
"We really needed this win," Axelsson said. "Things are looking better, right now.
"At least now we're in it. If we would have lost today, we would have been eight points behind Toronto."
The Maple Leafs (29-23-8) fell to 12-13-5 on home ice, despite outshooting the Bruins in every period and 44-21 overall.
"We have been working really hard to get a consistent game going," Maple Leafs forward Alex Steen said. "Tonight we didn't do that.
"We didn't score, we weren't skating. We didn't move the puck around well."
Andrew Raycroft surrendered three goals on 13 shots before being yanked in favour of backup Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who stopped all eight shots he faced.
"It's a frustrating loss," Raycroft said. "But at the same time, we cannot get down.
"It's going to be close all the way to the end. All the way to the playoffs."
Chistov nets eventual winner
Boston opened the scoring 7:13 into the contest as Chistov tallied his fourth goal of the season during a goalmouth scramble.
Axelsson made it to 2-0 on a slick solo effort, skating the length of the ice and beating Raycroft with a rising slapshot for a short-handed goal, his 10th at 14:14 of the second period.
Brandon Bochienski then knocked Maple Leafs defenceman Pavel Kubina off the puck behind the net and fed York, who scored on a slapshot from the point with 2:19 left in the stanza.
It marked York's first goal in 64 games dating back to Jan. 8, 2004, when he played for the Nashville Predators.
"I was pretty pumped," York said. "It gave us a nice little cushion."
Any chance of a late comeback by Toronto was squelched when Chad Kilger was penalized four minutes for high-sticking early in the third period.
The Maple Leafs also squandered a late power-play advantage when Tomas Kaberle was whistled for interference with under three minutes remaining.
Toronto had prevailed in its previous two encounters with Boston, but the Bruins took the season series 5-3.
With files from Sports Network
