Advantage Bruins!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The roller coaster ride continues for the Boston Bruins and their fans.
After what was arguably the B’s best performance of the postseason in their game 3 win in Tampa, Boston suffered an excruciating loss to the Lightning by blowing a 3-0 lead in game 4. Which set the stage for last night’s all important game 5 at the TD Garden.
With the series now reduced to a best-of-three, the winner of game 5 would clearly have the upper hand in the series and be that much closer to advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals. Final score: Boston 3 Tampa Bay 1. Advantage-Bruins.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThings did not start so well for Boston who fell behind 1-0 just 1:09 in when Simon Gagne and Steven Stamkos had a 2-on-1 against Johnny Boychuck and the B’s. The odd-man rush started at the Tampa blue line when Andrew Ference fell to the ice. Stamkos skated down the right slot and passed to Gagne who flipped it between the legs of Boychuck and over Thomas for the 1-0 lead. Thomas didn’t have much of a chance as the shot changed direction when it deflected off of Boychuck’s leg.
What was more disturbing about the first period was the fact that Tampa dominated play by outshooting Boston 14-4. The Lightning also took it to the Bruins physically delivering many more hits than they received.
Thomas played very well in the first 20 minutes helping Boston keep it to a 1-goal game. His counterpart was back-up Mike Smith who started in place of the struggling Dwayne Roloson. Including the 4 first period saves, Smith had stopped all 33 shots he faced from Boston players in this series.
Part of Boston’s inability to get the puck on Smith more often was due to their inability to stay out of the penalty box. Nathan Horton was responsible for 2 of the B’s first 4 penalties of the game with back-to-back interference calls at the end of the first period and the beginning of the second. Fortunately, the Bruins penalty kill was up to the task.
Shortly after coming out of the box from his second penalty, Horton blasted a slapshot from the left slot off the faceoff past Smith to tie the game at 1-1. Horton was set up on a nice pass from Milan Lucic after David Krejci won the faceoff in the Tampa Bay zone.
Boston’s second goal of the game was a tribute to the great play of Zdeno Chara. Chara chased his own dump-in on the right boards and kept it alive until Patrice Bergeron came along to grab it and fire a forehand pass across ice to rookie Brad Marchand who found the back of the net for a 2-1 lead with 4:04 remaining in the second period.
Playing with a sense of desperation in the third, Tampa brought the heat on Thomas and the Bruins who were up to the task.
Thomas made arguably the save of the postseason on Steve Downie when he made an unbelievable stick save midway through the third. Downie had the entire left side of the net open when he flipped the puck on goal. But Thomas dove across the crease extending the blade of his stick to smother the puck off the post.
Peverly's empty netter in the final minute of play put it away for Boston who is now only 1 win away from competing for Lord Stanley's Cup!
NOTES:
-One of the biggest (and loudest) cheers in the first period came for Patriots coach Bill Belichick who was in attendance. When Belichick was shown on the in-house big screen, B’s fans erupted with a loud ovation. Although you have to wonder if the ovation was for Belichick’s superb coaching skills or his ability to surround himself with tremendous talent like his blond female friend sitting to his left at the Garden.
-Even though they are red-hot and playing the team with the best record in all of baseball, the Boston Red Sox again took a back seat to the Bruins. While the Sox warranted a quick peek during commercial breaks in the hockey game, it was all about the B’s and Lightning.
-The Bruins power play struggled to muster up any type of sustained pressure on Smith and theLightning. So much, in fact, that the “boo’s” were very noticeable from the home fans with each failed attempt.
-The unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Marchand in the second for trying to sell the push by Victor Hedman was a joke! If the zebras think that was a dive by Marchand, then why did they let Academy Award-winner P.K. Subban and his Canadien teammates get away with all of the blatant dives they took in their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal round series with Boston?
-Saved by the pipe! While Tim Thomas played brilliantly in goal for the Bruins Monday night, he’ll also be the first to tell you that it doesn’t hurt to be a little lucky. Blair Jones had Thomas beat at point-blank range early in the third but his shot went off the post preventing Tampa from tying the game at 2.
-For the game, tampa outshot Boston 34-20 but Thomas was the game's #1 star for stopping 33 of the 34 shots he faced.
