Rocket:
The Canadiens may have played some of their best hockey in the overtime period getting numerous chances. But in the end, it was a bad line change and a delayed penalty call that allowed Marc Savard to come off the bench as the 6th man and win the game for the Bruins.
It was a game the Bruins had to win. At times it seemed like a Canadiens home game with Zdeno Chara getting booed every time he touched the puck from the large contigent of Habs fans. Bruins fans retaliated by booing Kovalev but with less enthusiasm and consistency. Later in the game the chants of ‘Ole Ole’ competed with ‘USA USA’.
The Bruins scored just over 6 minutes in the game to take their first lead of the season against the Canadiens. Josh Gorges had a chance to clear the puck but Marc Savard won a battle for the puck on the board and then made a perfect pass to Milan Lucic. Lucic was covered by Mark Streit who just froze and waved at the puck. Lucic pulled the puck back and using Streit as a screen fired it it the top corner for his first playoff goal. Carey Price had no chance.
The Canadiens tied the game in the second period on a great play by Tom Kostopoulos who scored while being dragged down just outside the crease. Kostopoulos has really battled hard creating havoc in front of Thomas. Bryan Smolinski was good at the faceoff dot winning 57%. Smolinski, Kostopoulos and Begin once again provided energy for the Canadiens, a shutdown role and a few scoring chances. Unfortunately they were on the ice for the winning goal by Boston.
Chris Higgins and Sergei Kostitsyn both played well but were kept off the scoresheet. Higgins is skating well and was a presence in both zones. Sergei K. has really played a much more physical game than he did during the season and has found a way to work through checks. He has been the Canadiens most consistent forward in the series so far.
Max Lapierre had a quiet game registering only one hit. Guillaume had a mild tussle with Shane Hnidy but was otherwise unremarkable. Mathieu Dandenault had limited icetime but registered 5 hits.
Kovalev, Plekanec and Andrei K really struggled to create chances both 5 on 5 and during the power play. We saw only flashes of the KPK line that we are familiar with. Tim Thomas was definitely beatable as he looked shaky and fought the puck all night. He is a battler and did make some good saves but many were easier than he made them look. However, the Canadiens failed to get to rebounds or several pucks that dribbled through Thomas. The Canadiens power play is now 1 for 18 on the series.
Carey Price had another solid game. He had no chance on the two goals surrendered by the Canadiens. He made a number of great glove saves and bailed out his teammates when their miscues sent Bruins in all alone. He made sure that there were no rebounds and slowed things down when the Bruins were pressuring the Canadiens.
The defensive corp was led by Mike Komisarek with 8 hits and 3 blocked shots. MK was on the receiving end of a few hits though and the one by Lucic that resulted in a boarding penalty seemed to hurt Komisarek. As mentioned since game #1, it is clear that MK is not 100%. He could really use some help as he seems to know that he has to make up for the lack of physical play by some of the other Canadien defensemen. I give MK a lot of credit for playing as well as he is when he is in obvious discomfort.
It was mistakes by Mark Streit and Josh Gorges that led to the first Bruin goal and Gorges had a chance to block the pass across by Wideman to Savard on the overtime goal. Gorges seemed to have trouble with the physical play of the Bruins. Mark Streit really struggled in the defensive zone and once again looked nervous on the power play. He rushed his passes and his shot was less than accurate.
I continue to be astonished that Patrice Brisebois is not sitting in the press box (I think that the Bruins are surprised too but pleased). Brisebois loses most battles for the puck in the defensive zone. If pressured, he doesn’t clear the zone well. He is often caught out of position by his slow foot speed. In the first period, Sturm beat him again to the puck and went in alone forcing Price to make a great save. We have seen that same play with Sturm outracing Brisebois three times already in the series. He provides no physical presence.
In the matchup off the ice, it would seem that Claude Julien is winning the battle over Guy Carbonneau. Julien has made the adjustments to his lineup that have improved his team. Carbonneau may make some changes for Tuesday night after tonight’s loss but they are changes that could have been anticipated and made earlier to allow the Canadiens to retain their momentum in the series.
Pregame:
Kovalev: He ignored Carbonneau’s calls to come off the ice in OT and stayed on to score the game winner on Saturday night.
Bruins lineup: Wideman in, Alberts out. No changes for Canadiens.
Rene Rancourt sung the anthems. His actions are more dramatic than his singing.
Boston Garden is relatively quiet. It’s Sunday and the arena is like a church (in comparison to the Bell Centre).
Rocket’s 3 stars:
1. Marc Savard
2. Tom Kostopoulos
3. Milan Lucic
(photo credit: Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)