There will be a game 7 to decide this series on Monday night in Montreal. In a frenzied finish, the Bruins outscored the Canadiens 4-2 in the third period for a 5-4 win.
There were a number of positive performances for the Canadiens. Carey Price was superb, and from early on, showed that he wasn’t bothered by the media histrionics after game #5. Price made a good pad save on a shot by Savard that was tipped by Kessel with the game only a few minutes old. Later Price bailed out Mark Streit who had bobbled a pass on the power play and then couldn’t catch PJ Axelsson. Axelsson was foiled by Price on his shorthanded breakaway chance. Price made a sensational save again on Axelsson midway through the second when he came in on a 2 on 1. Price made some great saves in the third period otherwise it could have been a blowout in favor of the Bruins as the Canadiens fell back and had poor defensive zone coverage.
The Canadiens had a good night at the faceoff dot. In particular, Koivu was great winning 71% of his faceoffs. Koivu had 2 assists and his line was the best on the night. Koivu’s determination shined through on the Canadiens 4th goal when he outskated a Bruin to the back of the net and won the battle for the puck. He got it to Sergei K who made a great pass to Higgins for his second goal of the game. Higgin has been working hard all series but looked much more comfortable back at his position on the wing. He has his best game of the series.
Tomas Plekanec had his best game of the series as well. He scored a beautiful breakaway goal just after coming out of the penalty box after a nice setup from Steve Begin. Plekanec made a nice move to accept the pass and stay onside and then with quick acceleration and a great deke he beat Thomas. Plekanec had 8 shots in the game. Francis Bouillon had the other Canadien goal in his first game back from his injury. It was another night when Tim Thomas looked very ordinary.
It was in the defensive zone that the Canadiens had some serious breakdowns that gave the Bruins the win. Phil Kessel scored the first Boston goal on a nice individual effort. Max Lapierre was caught standing still and just waved his stick as Kessel went by. Then Kessel went outside/in on Bouillon which put him in alone. He buried a perfect shot just inside the post.
The Bruins wouldn’t score again until early in the third period on a play that was offside. Josh Gorges was turned and out of position. The puck when off his stick to Sobotka who scored. Milan Lucic scored the third Boston goal as he deflected a shot from Aaron Ward. Ward received the pass from Savard who won a battle with Markov for the puck after Plekanec had scrambled the draw.
Patrice Brisebois had another weak defensive game. On the fourth Boston goal he was beat at the blueline and then coasted back towards the play. Plekanec and Koivu were back defending but couldn’t stop Kessel who chipped in a puck that was passed across the crease.
Kovalev was guilty of a soft clearing attempt on Boston’s winning goal. Then Marco Sturm knocked Hamrlik into the boards to gain possession. As Hamrlik tried to get back into the play, he got tangled with Josh Gorges which allowed Sturm a clear path all alone to the goal.
Kovalev was -3 on the night and was ineffective in the offensive zone. Other than Mike Komisarek and Andrei Markov, the defense corp had a rough outing. They really could have used Ryan O’Byrne. In addition, Mark Streit continues to play poorly in the playoffs. It is no coincidence that the power play was 0 for 4.
At the benches, Guy Carbonneau is being thoroughly outcoached by Claude Julien. This includes very odd line-up decisions by Carbo and a poor grasp on in-game management. Once again, starting in the second period the Canadiens curiously switched to a very passive one man forecheck system and fell back to employ a trap. It hasn’t worked all series long.
Pregame:
Elliotte Friedman interviewed Saku Koivu. Saku says his wife will get her first look at his new haircut on TV. Koivu’s keys for victory: “consistent, disciplined, and play our game”. (Stock made some comment but the captions weren’t on the TV at the time)
HNIC did a nice piece on Carey Price’s family in Williams Lake, B.C.. Lynda and Jerry Price seem like well grounded, down to earth people..just like Carey.
Habs line-up changes: Streit, Koivu, Bouillon in. O’Byrne, Latendresse, Ryder out.
Rocket’s 3 stars:
1. Phil Kessel
2. Chris Higgins
3. Marco Sturm
(photo credit: Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)