The Boston Bruins have taken advantage of home ice and Roberto Luongo, earning a 4-0 victory to even their series with the Vancouver Canucks at two games apiece.
After surrendering eight goals in Game 3, Luongo was pulled early in the third period of Game 4 after giving up a goal to Rich Peverley, the fourth he surrendered in the contest.
Luongo made 16 saves on the 20 shots he faced before being replaced by Cory Schneider.
Canucks' head coach Alain Vigneault supported his struggling goaltender following the game.
"Lou's going to be fine," said Vigneault. "He's one of the best goaltenders in the league and we have a lot of trust and faith in his ability to play well."
Peverley scored the first of his two-goal effort in the first period on a breakaway as he snapped the puck past Luongo.
Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien knew that Peverley was a player he could lean on in the absence of Nathan Horton.
"I like his character, he comes to play every day," said Julien. "He's a very serious athlete, he takes care of himself and right now he's being rewarded."
The Bruins seized control of the game in the second period when Michael Ryder and Brad Marchand scored goals 2:18 seconds apart to solidify the victory.
Tim Thomas was solid once again in net for the Bruins making 38 saves to earn his second consecutive win and first shutout of the series.
Julien believes his goaltender is always ready for pressure situations.
"Anyone who knows the story of Tim Thomas, he's taken a real bumpy road to get to the NHL," said Julien. "He's had so many obstacles to overcome. It makes him a battler, it makes him the perfect goaltender for our organization."
Thomas meanwhile thinks his team has played its best hockey when the stakes have been the highest.
"Every time we've faced adversity as a team we've rose to the challenge," said Thomas. "We needed to do that one more time because we were down 2-0 and we've done that for two games. The challenge for us is that we need to keep doing that."
The Canucks power play once again could not generate offence as they failed on six more opportunities and have now slumped to just 1-for-22 in the series.
With the Canucks set to host two of the final three games of the series, Luongo is not worried about having to win a game in Boston as the series heads back to Vancouver.
"We worked hard all year to get home ice advantage and this is where it's going to serve its purpose," Luongo said. "We want to make sure that we get playing the way we did in the first two home games and establish a good tempo and take it to them."
