Campbell, Thornton provide reliability

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BOSTON -- They're a simple line. They want to be reliable. They want to have their coach's trust.

Shawn Thornton, Greg Campbell and Daniel Paille have been playing together on the same line for nearly two full seasons now. And one thing you'll never be able to take away from them is their hard-working, blue-collar style.

They play 82. They show up every night. When you hear someone criticize effort, or calling for everyone to show up, that never includes them.

But if you look at the score sheet, that may not always seem like the case.

And as of late, the Bruins have been a mediocre team. The numbers show it.

For the first time since Feb. 11, the numbers showed up on the score sheet for the Bruins' fourth line.

Daniel Paille (upper body) missed his third straight game on Thursday night, so he wasn't involved in any of the scoring in Boston's 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres at the TD Garden, but his line mates were.

With 1:51 left in the second period, Campbell came across the slot and re-directed a Thornton slap shot, which beat Sabres goaltender Jhonas Enroth to tie the game at 1-1.

It not only was the line's first point since Thornton assisted Paille's goal on Feb. 11, but it also woke up a Bruins team that was trying to win back-to-back games since Jan. 12.

"Those guys work so hard, you like to see them get rewarded once in a while," said Bruins coach Claude Julien after the win. "And I think it's frustrating for them as well, even if it's not their primary job to score goals. They still like to contribute for us."

In case you weren't counting, the line went 12 games without a single point. So, frustrated they were.

"We work our asses off, and sometimes we don't get rewarded for it," said Thornton after the win. "But tonight we did. So it was nice. Hopefully it will start going in a little bit more often."

"It's frustrating at times," said Campbell. "I like to contribute. I think the success of a team often comes from the depth of your team. And not that the coaching staff puts pressure on us to score, but it's always a compliment if you get secondary scoring.

"We've been trying to do the right things and trying to create chances, trying to put the puck in. And sometimes things are out of your control. And we can control our level of work that we put in, and we're putting in the work. Tonight, we were rewarded."

But not without some dramatics, of course.

Campbell's tip hit the blade of his stick -- which broke in the process. And it was clear that the puck then went into the net. Question was, did Campbell's stick extend above the crossbar? If so, the goal would have been disallowed.

"We were joking, if it got called back, we might retire," said Thornton.

But after the review, replays showed that Campbell's stick wasn't too high when he made contact with the puck. The goal and the tie game stood.

"At that point, it's just like, c'mon, not now," said Campbell. "But I was pretty confident that my stick was below the crossbar.

"Goals have been so hard to come by this year, to have a goal go in and to have it go to review, is frustrating."

The Bruins seemed to be no longer frustrated after Campbell and Thornton got the scoring started, and it helped energize the Bruins to a big win.

"That's what we tried to do, was roll four lines tonight," said Julien. "Because we wanted to try and keep the pressure on them, knowing that they had played the night before.

"That line was good for us tonight," Julien continued. "I thought they did a great job on the forecheck and spending some time in the offensive zone. It was only fitting that they scored the first goal and got us going, because after we scored that goal, I thought the energy level just kind of went up another notch. And we just took it from there."

"We're a simple line," said Campbell. "We try to be a diligent line, and work hard every night, and ultimately be a reliable, responsible line that the coaching staff can trust."

They always are. Thursday night's goal was just a bonus.

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