VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 15 (UPI) -- Tim Thomas completed a sensational season with his fourth shutout of the playoffs Wednesday and Boston won the Stanley Cup by downing Vancouver 4-0.
It was the sixth NHL championship for the Bruins and their first in 39 years. They had lost each of the last five times they had made the Stanley Cup Finals.
For the third time in these playoffs, Boston competed in a seventh and deciding game of a series. The Bruins survived a seventh game with a 4-3, overtime win over Montreal in the first round and Thomas produced a 1-0 shutout over Tampa Bay in the deciding contest of the Eastern Conference Finals.
In the 16th Game 7 in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals, Thomas made 37 saves. Boston became only the fourth road team to win a seventh game in the championship series.
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Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand both scored twice, with Bergeron delivering the backbreaking goal late in the second period.
Bergeron scored on a shorthanded breakaway with 2:25 to go in the period to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead. The final goal came from Marchand into an empty net with 2:44 left in the third.
After stopping 95-of-97 shots and posting two shutouts in the first three games of the series played in Vancouver, Roberto Luongo gave up three goals on 21 shots. Luongo allowed 15 goals on 66 shots in the three games played in Boston.
Thomas, meanwhile, was incredible throughout the series and was named the most valuable player of the playoffs. He gave up eight goals on 238 shots against the Canucks and had two shutouts.
That performance backed up a regular season in which Thomas led the NHL in goals-against average (2.00) and save percentage (93.8). He was also best in the playoffs in both categories, giving up an average of 2.11 goals per game and stopping 93.7 percent of the shots he faced.
Vancouver had been trying to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history.
