Too many men has been a touchy subject for the Bruins and their fans over the years.
So it was not out of reason to think the worst when the B's were called for that infamous penalty less than a minute into last night's Game Three in Montreal.
Caught up in a line change, the Bruins were forced to toughen up almost immediately, as they were shorthanded before a raucous crowd that was nothing short of bloodthirsty.
The Bruins' penalty killing unit did their job and used their momentum to grab their first lead of the postseason at 3:11 of the first period, as David Krejci took a centering pass from Patrice Bergeron and rifled it past the red hot Carey Price to put the Bruins up 1-0.
Nathan Horton got on the board as well later on in the opening stanza, banking a shot off of Price's back and into the net to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. The first line of Krejci-Horton-Lucic has been criticized so far in this series for not producing like a traditional first line should, but responded very nicely in Game Three.
Taking advantage of a lucky break by Boston, the Bruins skated with much more energy in Game Three than in the previous two contests. They were able to carry their momentum to the second period and took advantage of yet another Canadiens' miscue.
Early in the second period, Price attempted to pass the puck from behind his own net. The pass bounced off of Mark Recchi's skates and ended up on the stick of Rich Peverley, who tapped in the empty netter to put the B's up 3-0.
Jack Edwards (who may have been the first star of the game) then pointed out that the last time the Bruins had a 3-0 lead in the postseason, they blew it and ruined their season. Thanks bro.
Bruins fans' greatest fears were soon realized, as Montreal scored a pair of bad angle goals closing the gap to 3-2 and injecting a shot of adrenaline into the sold out Bell Centre crowd.
The rest of the game belonged to Tim Thomas, who made 14 saves in the third period and closed out the victory after Chris Kelly scored an empty net goal to give the Bruins life in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
The Bruins look to tie the series at 2 on Thursday night in Montreal at 7:30, and they must recreate their effort last night in order to do so.
1 comment:
Excellent article. I was ready to climb through the TV screen and slap my hand over Jack's mouth when he started 3-0 comment, but he managed to stop it himself and all was well after that.
Post a Comment