This One's For You, Horton

Tyler Seguin, Adam McQuaid and Chris Kelly mob Michael Ryder after his second period goal put Boston on top 2-0. The Bruins went on to shutout Vancouver 4-0, evening up the Stanley Cup Finals at two games apiece.

Leading up to the Revolutionary War, first generation Americans banded together against the British under the rallying cry of "No taxation without representation."

Some 250 plus years later, it can be said that the Boston Bruins used the slogan "Win it for Horton" to even up the Stanley Cup Finals at two games apiece.

Less than 48 hours after an epic 8-1 blowout of Vancouver in Game 3 that will live on in Bruins folklore forever, the streaking Black and Gold continued to rally around their fallen teammate, using Nathan Horton's devastating injury as motivation to pummel the Canucks 4-0 Wednesday night before a deafening sell-out crowd of 17,565 at the TD Garden.

Once again, Tim Thomas led the way with 38 saves to secure his 3rd shutout of the postseason while Rich Peverley, filling in for the injured Horton on the first line, paced the offense with a pair of goals.

Resurrecting an old-time hockey tradition, the Bruins have been passing along a vintage Black and Gold jacket to the player who most deserved recognition for his performance after each win.

After Game 3, the jacket hung in Horton's locker as a tribute to the Bruins' wounded teammate, presumably for the rest of the series.

However, in true you-only-see-this-stuff-in-the-movies-type fashion, Horton unexpectedly showed up in the Bruins locker room after the game Wednesday night and passed on the jacket to Peverley.

To say Horton's appearance was moving would be a gross understatement.

"When I personally got to see him in the locker room, I was incredibly happy," admitted Thomas, who once again blanked the NHL's top offensive team. "It gave me a big boost. He was there to pass the jacket on. The team would have been happy leaving it with Horty for the rest of the series, but he wanted to give it away and keep the tradition going."

"Watching him going down, we want to finish what we started for him."

With the loss of Horton due to a devastating concussion sustained after a violent, blindside hit by Aaron Rome, head coach Claude Julien shuffled his lineup by promoting Peverley to the first line alongside David Krejci and Milan Lucic and inserting rookie phenom Tyler Seguin back onto the third line with Michael Ryder and Chris Kelly.

Both moves ending up paying enormous dividends for the B's.

Despite outshooting the Bruins 12-6 in the opening stanza, the Bruins scored the period's only goal at 11:59 when Peverley took a feed from David Krejci and beat Roberto Luongo between the pads to give Boston a 1-0 lead.

Continuing to dominate, the Bruins extended the lead to 3-0 with a pair of goals on consecutive shots midway through the second period. First, it was Ryder taking a perfect cross-ice, break-out feed from Seguin and then ripping a wristshot from the top of the left circle under the glove of Luongo for his 7th goal of the postseason.

Just over two minutes later, with both teams playing four-on-four, Zdeno Chara sparked the second goal when he made a beautiful play to keep the puck inside the Vancouver zone before promptly dumping it back in.

Allowing the Bruins to forecheck and cycle down low, Chara's keep-in found Patrice Bergeron, who quickly won a one-on-one battle and then fed Marchand all alone in front.

Displaying uncanny instinct around the crease, Marchand lifted a quick backhand that tipped of off Luongo's glove and into the back of the net for his 8th goal of the postseason.

"It's always easier to be at home," admitted Marchand, who has now scored two goals in as many games. "We feed off the energy, off our fans. They just bring out the best in us."

Taking it to Vancouver without any thoughts of letting up, the Bruins made it 4-0 less than four minutes into the third. Leading the play, Lucic raced into the Canucks zone with speed, made a stellar side-step move on Kevin Bieska and then fed the puck in front looking for Peverley. 

Initially, Luongo deflected the puck with his stick, however it caromed directly off of Peverley and into the goal for his second tally of the game. 

Allowing his 12th goal in less than six periods, Luongo was pulled from the game in favor of backup Cory Schneider, a former Boston College star. 

Before the game was over, one final melee broke out when Alex Burrows, public enemy number one for his Game 1 bite of Bergeron, knocked Thomas' stick out of his hands in the crease. 

Jumping on an opportunity to take it to Burrows, Thomas crushed Burrows in the leg with his stick and then threw a series of punches at the Vancouver forward. As soon as Burrows began fighting back, Dennis Seidenberg and Chara came to Thomas' defense and pummeled Burrows as well as several other Canucks near the goal. 

"I thought I'd give him a little love tap," admitted Thomas. "Let them know that I know what you're doing, but I'm not going to let you do it forever. That's all that was. A typical battle."

As the final buzzer sounded, the Garden erupted with ecstatic Bruins fans shouting Horton's name in celebrated unison.  

Since Rome's devastating hit on Horton in the first period of Game 3, Boston has outscored the Canucks 12-1. 

And if the Bruins go on to hoist their first Stanley Cup trophy in 39 years, every die-hard B's fan from Cape Cod to Pittsfield will be able to look back and say 2011 was the magical year that our beloved Bruins banded together against the NHL's best team and won it for Nathan Horton.