Let me be the first to say: smell you later Montreal, enjoy not making the playoffs this season.
The Boston Bruins did their best to end the regular season series with their biggest rival positively as they won 4-3 in a shootout tonight at the Bell Centre.
Boston (35-18-2) was in control, up 3-1 heading into the third but credit Montreal (23-25-10) for rallying with two goals and forcing overtime. However, the Bruins got the last laugh as Tyler Seguin scored the only shootout goal and Tim Thomas (26 saves; 24-11-0) stopped all three Canadiens shooters.
After losing the first two in October, the B's won the final four against the Habs. It was standard procedure that the finale had to feature some batshit crazy incidents. For instance, four goaltender interference penalties were called in the second (two on each team). Montreal fans proved that they're still the worst in the NHL as they cheered when a puck hit Zdeno Chara in the face, causing him to get stitches. Frankly, I am happy to say goodbye to those clowns who fell to eight points out of the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.
Besides the two points, the best part about the victory for Boston was that so many guys that had been cold woke up and made big plays. Just look at who scored the goals: Andrew Ference, Benoit Pouliot and Patrice Bergeron. In short, it was a great way to start their longest road trip of the season.
After Adam McQuaid and Ryan White traded heavy punches, Ference (5th of the season) made it 1-0 at 17:09 of the first from Brad Marchand (more on him later).
Mathieu Darche (5th of the season) tied it at 1 with a shorthanded tally (first one Boston had allowed this season, the last team to give one up) at 1:39 of the second. He drove to the net and P.K. Subban put it on his stick for the redirection.
Pouliot (9th of the season) pulled off a typical Pouliot move: amazing and completely out of nowhere. He put the puck through a Montreal player's legs than put it through Carey Price's (31 saves) legs. Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley had the assists.
At 14:33, Bergeron (17th of the season) increased the lead to 3-1 as he roofed a tough angle shot over Price. The power play goal was assisted by Seguin and Chara.
The second period ended with some more controversy about a Marchand hit. He clipped Alexei Emelin not as blatantly as the one in the Canucks game, but he'll likely be hearing from Brendan Shanahan again.
The Canadiens almost rallied for an epic win as Max Pacioretty (24th of the season) snuck a shot by Thomas at 3:34 and Erik Cole (22nd of the season) tied it at 11:12 thanks to Chara's mind-numbing giveaway.
It was an ugly game but the Bruins got the job done which is all that matters after they were completely outplayed last night against the Rangers. Up next, Boston travels to Winnipeg on Friday. The Jets beat the B's in Winnipeg back in December (2-1 on Dec. 6) but Boston paid them back with a 5-3 win Jan. 10 at the Garden.
There is no question that Tuukka Rask will get the start since Thomas played the last two nights, something which doesn't often happen. Unfortunately, it looks like Peverley will miss some time since he left with a knee injury tonight and never returned. Hopefully it's not too serious.
UPDATE 2/16: Peverley was sent home for further examination. He was injured on a knee to knee hit by former Bruin Hal Gill.
Marchand will not be fined or suspended for his hit which apparently was enough of a hip check to only merit a two-minute penalty. Still, with less than a second on the clock and the puck far away from Boston's goal, he needs to be a little smarter than that.
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