Next stop: 1st Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 in Boston Bruins history

It seems only natural that the most exciting playoff run for the Boston Bruins in my lifetime will end in the ultimate finale: Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals tomorrow night at the Rogers Centre in Vancouver.

Home ice has carried all the weight in the series, making Boston forget its offense at the border while Vancouver loses its will to compete in the Hub. The home teams have won the first six games so the B's hope to break that tomorrow night while also gunning for their first Stanley Cup in 39 years. Meanwhile the meek and mild, pale folks of Vancouver are praying that the Canucks grab their first Cup in the franchise's 40 years of existence.

Either way, the Cup will be in the building tomorrow night and the entire hockey universe will be watching one more time.

For the third straight contest, Boston absolutely rolled over Vancouver at TD Garden, taking Game 6 by the score of 5-2. It didn't even feel that close as the Bruins basically guaranteed a winner-take-all Game 7 with a Stanley Cup Finals record four-goal flurry in a span of 4:14 of the first period.

LeBron James is the biggest fraud in the U.S. when it comes to crunch time (like say the fourth quarter of NBA Finals games) but can we agree that Roberto Luongo owns Canada in terms of being pathetic and completely unreliable in the big moment? After crying to the media between Games 5 and 6 about how he wasn't getting enough attention and somehow making fun of Tim Thomas, Luongo deserved all the grief he got.

After giving up three goals and making five saves, he lasted for just 8:35 of Game 6 before he took a seat on Vancouver's bench and called his agent with dreams of a sequel to Mr. Deeds 2. Marblehead, MA native Cory Schneider (30 saves; 2 goals allowed) came in for the second straight time in his hometown as Luongo gave up 15 goals combined in two games and less than half of a period.

Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault has already stuck by his emotionally-shattered Vezina trophy candidate for the start in Game 7 and as a Bruins fan, I say yeah Alain! In his limited sample size, Schneider looks much more calm and capable of not getting overwhelmed by the stakes.

With another great game (36 saves) and a win, Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas wrapped up the Conn Smythe trophy (given to the playoffs MVP). It's clear by now that he's completely in Vancouver's heads as they can't bury breakaways or chances that would be sure-fire goals on almost anyone else in the world.

Boston is a team of solid players that are currently excelling at stepping up their games at just the right time. This was beautifully illustrated last night as five different guys scored goals. 10 different players had points for the Bruins and that doesn't even include Chris Kelly (14 of 19 on faceoffs) and Shawn Thornton (game-high 7 hits), who both left their stamp on this performance.

Vancouver has the big stars offensively in Daniel Sedin (1 goal and 3 assists vs. Boston), Henrik Sedin (1 goal, 0 assists vs. Boston) and Ryan Kesler (0 goals, 1 assist vs. Boston) who's clearly hurt but they've been totally held in check by Boston's lockdown defensive pairing of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg.

Brad Marchand (9th of the playoffs, setting a new Bruins rookie record) beat Luongo at 5:31 with a quick snap shot on the high, short side. Mark Recchi and Seidenberg assisted on the goal, Marchand's third in his last four games.

35 seconds later, before the PA announcer had even said the first goal, Milan Lucic scored his fifth of the postseason. It was a soft wrist shot that leaked through Luongo's Paris Hilton-esque five hole. Rich Peverley had the first assist with a nifty drop pass and Johnny Boychuk had the other helper.

Andrew Ference's power-play goal at 8:35 (his fourth of the playoffs) made it 3-0 and signaled the end of Bob Louie's not so excellent adventure. Michael Ryder and Recchi (who had a perfect screen) were credited with the assists.

Only 1:10 into his outing, Schneider gave up a goal to Ryder (his eighth of the playoffs), who tipped home a shot from the point by wait for it, wait for it, TOMAS KABERLE.

Not much transpired in the second period and the Canucks showed a slight pulse as Henrik scored a power-play goal (his third of the playoffs) 22 seconds into the third. His brother and Christian Ehroff assisted on the backhander.

Thomas' shutout was over and Jannik Hansen had a great chance to make it somewhat scary by cutting it to 4-2 but his shot went off the post (haha, that didn't stop the Canucks from celebrating). Replays showed it didn't go in and David Krejci was able to score Boston's second power-play goal of the contest at 6:59 (his 12th of the playoffs from Recchi and Kaberle).

Maxim Lapierre scored in garbage time (his third of the playoffs) at 17:34 from Daniel Sedin and Hansen but there would be no insufferable dancing like in Game 5.

Throw out all the numbers and everything that has happened in this crazy series over the last two weeks. Tomorrow night is all that matters and the Bruins are in a great position to end decades of frustration with the sweetest reward of all: a Stanley Cup on a rival's home ice.

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Canucks blank Bruins 1-0 in Game 5, move one win away from Stanley Cup

I don't know what it is about the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals but neither team can put everything together on the road. As a result, the home team has won the first five games. That's great news for the Vancouver Canucks (who have home-ice advantage) and bad news for the Boston Bruins who cannot find the back of the net North of the border.

Vancouver won 1-0 last night in Game 5 as Maxim Lapierre scored on a lucky bounce and Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo (31 saves) put his Game 3 and 4 misery behind him.

Boston trails 3-2 in the series and they have to win at TD Garden on Monday night to send this series back to Vancouver on Wednesday for a winner-takes-all Game 7.

It's hard to explain how the B's could pile up 12 goals on Luongo in Games 3 and 4 at home and yet they've so far combined for two goals in Vancouver over three games (1-0, 3-2 in OT, 1-0).

On the same note, Luongo is seemingly a different guy when he's at home. Instead of a mess, he turns into a competent goaltender capable of winning a big game. I will say that the Bruins didn't really test him that much, other than Chris Kelly hitting the crossbar and Patrice Bergeron putting one off his blocker, but they don't ask you how you get it done at this level (unless your name is Tim Thomas).

Thomas (24 saves) was once again the best player on the ice and he deserved a better fate. Can we agree that he's secured the Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) regardless if the Bruins win or lose?

Lapierre scored at 4:35 of the third period after Kevin Bieksa shot it off the back boards intentionally and it took a fortunate bounce to Lapierre who was stationed on the other side of the crease. Lapierre didn't get much on the shot but Thomas was scrambling to get in position so he got a piece but he couldn't completely stop it from going over the line. It was nothing like the Game 2 overtime winner which was all on Timmy. This one was simply a lucky play for that dirtbag Lapierre (his second goal of the playoffs) and shit luck for the B's. Raffi Torres had the second assist.

From the start, it was obvious that the Canucks were a different team since they were throwing their body around, a stark difference from Boston where they reverted back to a soft, Eurotrash style game. At times, Vancouver was still flopping and pretending to be on the verge of death (Lapierre after getting slightly poked by Zdeno Chara in the stomach) so I guess that's totally ingrained in their DNA.

Boston got the first three power plays of the evening, all in the first period, but before you could say Gregory Campbell, they were 0 for 3. Claude Julien put Campbell on the power play for over two minutes of action while rookie Tyler Seguin logged only 12 seconds on the man advantage. This is not why the B's lost and I'm not going to dump on Claude too much at this point but really dude? That head scratching move was compounded by the fact that Seguin was one of the only Bruins that had any jump and speed. Most of the other Bruins looked a step slow, victims of the brutal cross-country travel and a 5 p.m. local start (yes, both teams have the same circumstances).

I'm not going to bank on a Bruins win in Game 6 but all signs point to them getting the job done at home one more time. The most important thing is for Boston to get a lead and put some doubt back in Luongo's mind. This series is not over and I'm confident in the proven fact that Boston has bounced back from every tough loss they've suffered this postseason. You know Thomas will show up and ditto for the Garden crowd. Now we just need the Bruins to pop a few goals in and shift the pressure back to Vancouver.

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