Well, what do you know? The Bruins showed up to play hockey at the drop of the puck and ended up leading the game from 13:30 of the first period until the final buzzer.
For the first time since April 2009 the Bruins scored a playoff power play goal against the Canadiens. Thirty-two seconds later they did it again. As a Bruins fan I'd like to give a shoutout to Tomas Plekanec for helping the Bruins put an end to that drought by heading to the box for both of those penalties.
While I predicted that the Bruins would show up and finally score on a power play, I was off when I said that the Bruins would be perfect on the penalty kill. Although they were not perfect in the end, they were perfect in the first period which was all that really mattered in the end. By starting out the game a perfect 3 for 3 on the penalty kill and scoring 2 power play goals early in the 2nd, the Bruins would have enough momentum to withstand Gallagher's goal at the end of the second. While seeing Subban score another power play goal during this series was not what anyone wanted, it's a little unrealistic to think that the Bruins would be able to withstand 2 minutes of 6 on 4 hockey.
While starting the game with a 3-0 allowed the Bruins to play their game, it should be noted that this was the first game where they blocked more shots than the Canadiens. Although it was only a slight edge 18-16, the Canadiens had dominated that statistic 96 to 60 in the previous four games. Another statistic which was nice to see the Bruins improve upon was takeaways. In one game the Bruins had three more takeaways than they did in games 1, 3 and 4 combined.
Believe it or not, this was the first game where Montreal took more shots than the Bruins. In his 12th NHL playoff game, Swede Carl Soderberg came up big scoring one goal and assisting on 2. Fellow Swede Loui Eriksson also had a mult-point game by assisting on Soderberg's first goal and netting one of his own in the 3rd. I guess if I'm giving a shouout to a Hab for getting two penalties, I should give a shoutout to Scandinavia for Eriksson, Soderberg and Tuukka Rask. Okay, I'll make it a hat trick of sorts by giving my third shoutout to the Dallas Stars for last year's trade. Thanks guys.
Believe it or not, this was the first game where Montreal took more shots than the Bruins. In his 12th NHL playoff game, Swede Carl Soderberg came up big scoring one goal and assisting on 2. Fellow Swede Loui Eriksson also had a mult-point game by assisting on Soderberg's first goal and netting one of his own in the 3rd. I guess if I'm giving a shouout to a Hab for getting two penalties, I should give a shoutout to Scandinavia for Eriksson, Soderberg and Tuukka Rask. Okay, I'll make it a hat trick of sorts by giving my third shoutout to the Dallas Stars for last year's trade. Thanks guys.
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