BRUINS WIN BRUINS WIN

Photo Credit Google Images boston.cbslocal.com

With the puck in the corner in overtime, Adam McQuaid pinched down and kept the puck in the corner.  Milan Lucic scraped it out of the pile, found a wide open Nathan Horton at the blue line.  Horton, with open ice in front of him, stepped into a slap shot that found its way behind Carey Price for the game winning goal in overtime.  

The Bruins took both the game and series, 4-3.

Boston took the lead only minutes into the game as Johnny Boychuck, ripped an absolute missile past Price.  Minutes later, the ageless Mark Recchi found himself wide open and whistled a wrist shot top shelf to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.  

The Canadiens then took their timeout to try to regain their composure.  It proved to be a critical timeout, as the Habs controlled the flow of play for the majority of the next 25 minutes.

Special teams proved to be critical once again, as both the penalty kill and powerplay let the Bruins down.  With Danielle Paille's stick 15 feet away from him, the Habs had a defacto five on three powerplay and took full advantage of it as Yannick Weber lifted a wrist shot over Tim Thomas's glove.

Five minutes into the second period, the Bruins were again short-handed.  Dennis Seidenberg then made a sloppy play in the neutral zone, only to be picked up by Tomas Plekanec who snapped a wrist shot by Thomas on a break-a-way.  The flow of play was dominated by the Canadiens for the rest of the second period, but Timmy Thomas held his ground, and the two bitter rivals went into the third knotted at two.

The Bruins got back on top of their game in the third and took a 3-2 lead at 9:44 of the third on a rebound put-back by Chris Kelly.  This play opened up because of a check Kelly put on a Canadien defenseman.  The defenseman, I forget who the flopper was, laid there on the ice like there was a sniper in section 814 of the balcony.  The B's then had transition, and Andrew Ference got a wrist shot through to the net.  Kelly scooped up the rebound, and backhanded the puck into the back of the net to give the black and gold a 3-2 advantage.  

The Bruins kept up their intense flow of play and had multiple scoring chances, only to be stoned by Carey Price.  Patrice Bergeron got his stick up near the face of a Canadien defenseman with only three minutes left in the game, and the Habs once again had the man-advantage.

The dangerous Montreal power play took the ice trying to send this game to overtime.  With crisp passing and phenomenal puck movement, the Habs got the shot they were looking for; a one-timer from their talented young (cough pussy cough) defenseman, PK Subban.  Subban ripped the shot past Thomas, tying the game, and sending it into overtime. 

Up and down, back and forth.  This is how overtime started as both teams had great opportunities, but the netminders stepped up and held their ground.  Five minutes and forty three seconds into overtime, Nathan Horton ripped the slapper by Carey Price to send the Bruins into the next round.

What a fantastic series.  What a fucking great game. Holy shit.

Time to enjoy this one for a few days, but then its back to business.  A first round win is just a step in the right direction, and the Bruins as well as the fans are not satisfied......but it does feel good to be the ones to knock Montreal out!