Morning Box Score: Bruins Blank Blackhawks

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 30, 2011 3:00PM

As unpredictable as the Blackhawks play has been all season, it's something of an achievement that coach Joel Quenneville has the team in playoff contention with 90 points, given the exodus of talent due to GM Stan Bowman's salary cap cuts in the offseason. But that still doesn't make last night's 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins at the Fleet Center sting any less.

This was a match that was chippy from the first faceoff before the Bruins took control. Goaltender Tim Thomas earned his ninth shutout of the season with a 32-save performance, Zdeno Chara and Johnny Boychuk gave Thomas a cushion by scoring 2 minutes, 20 seconds apart in the second period and Mark Recchi moved past Paul Coffey on the NHL's all-time scoring list with an assist. Recchi now has 1,532 points for his career and is drawing a bead on Bruins great Ray Bourque, whom he trails on the scoring list.

As for the Hawks, they missed a good opportunity to put some distance between themselves and Calgary for the final Western Conference playoff spot. The Hawks could use some scoring punch and are hoping Patrick Sharp's left knee injury is healed enough that he can take to the ice this weekend.