Wednesday, April 27, 2011
BOSTON — Nathan Horton scored 5:43 into overtime to give the Bruins a 4-3 victory over the Canadiens on Wednesday night in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.
Boston will play the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second consecutive year.
Tim Thomas stopped 34 shots for the Bruins, who recovered after losing the first two games of the series at home. Boston had never won a playoff series after trailing 0-2 in 26 tries.
Carey Price stopped 30 shots for Montreal, which erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 in Game 7.
Horton scored with a slap shot off a pass from Milan Lucic, setting off a celebration on the Bruins bench and in the stands. It was Boston's third overtime win in the series, including Game 5 Saturday night when Horton scored 9:03 into the second extra period.
Johnny Boychuk and Mark Recchi scored in the first 5:33 of Game 7 to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead. But Yannick Weber made it a one-goal game with a power-play goal in the first. Tomas Plekanec tied it in the second with an unassisted, short-handed goal.
After Chris Kelly scored with just under 10 minutes left to give Boston a 3-2 lead, P.K. Subban tied it in the final two minutes — again on the power play.
The Bruins were 0 for 21 on the power play in the series.
But it doesn't matter.
They will open the next round in Philadelphia with a chance to avenge last year's epic collapse. Boston led that series 3-0 before Philadelphia came back to force Game 7 in Boston. In that game the Bruins took a 3-0 lead before losing 4-3.
That was the second straight year the Bruins lost a Game 7 at home.
This time, they made sure it wouldn't happen again.
| at Bruins | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Canadiens | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
First—1, Boston, Boychuk 1 (Marchand, Bergeron), 3:31. 2, Boston, Recchi 1 (Ference), 5:33. 3, Montreal, Weber 2 (Hamrlik, Cammalleri), 9:49 (pp). Penalties—Ryder, Bos (hooking), 8:22; Thornton, Bos (elbowing), 16:02; Kostitsyn, Mon (high-sticking), 17:59.
Second—4, Montreal, Plekanec 2, 5:50 (sh). Penalties—Eller, Mon (cross-checking), 4:41; Boychuk, Bos (boarding), 18:12.
Third—5, Boston, Kelly 3 (Ference, Peverley), 9:44. 6, Montreal, Subban 2 (Plekanec, Gionta), 18:03 (pp). Penalties—Bergeron, Bos (high-sticking), 17:23. First Overtime—7, Boston, Horton 3 (Lucic, McQuaid), 5:43. Penalties—None. Shots—Montreal 9-12-11-5—37. Boston 9-7-13-5—34. Power plays—Montreal 2 of 4; Boston 0 of 2. Goalies—Montreal, Price 3-4-0 (34 shots-30 saves). Boston, Thomas 4-3-0 (37-34). A—17,565 (17,565). T—2:58. Referees—Tim Peel, Kelly Sutherland. Linesmen—Pierre Racicot, Jean Morin.
Late Tuesday: Canucks feel golden
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — To understand how big it was for the Canucks to finally knock the Blackhawks out of the playoffs, you just had to talk to their Olympians.
Alex Burrows scored his second goal 5:22 into overtime, Roberto Luongo made 31 saves and the Canucks avoided a historic playoff collapse by beating the defending Stanley Cup champions 2-1 in Game 7 of their first-round series late Tuesday.
After being eliminated from the last two playoffs by Chicago, Luongo compared the victory to his gold medal for Canada in the same building 14 months earlier.
"I don't know, this one might be better than the Olympics," Luongo said.
American Ryan Kesler, who lost that Olympic final to Luongo, said he wanted this game more than the gold medal.
"We needed to get over this hump," Kesler said.
Also, the league fined Canucks general manager Mike Gillis an undisclosed amount for complaining about the officiating during the series.
BRAIN STUDY: NHL Alumni and a Toronto neuroscience institute are teaming up on a study to track the brain health of retired players. The Rotman Research Institute is recruiting former NHL players to participate in the study. The aim is to identify risk factors linked to cognitive decline and mental health changes as the players age. A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found 559 concussions during regular-season games from 1997 to 2004.
SELKE TROPHY: Detroit center Pavel Datsyuk, who has won the Frank Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward the past three years, is one of three finalists. Vancouver's Ryan Kesler and Chicago's Jonathan Toews are the other nominees for the award, which will be announced at the NHL awards banquet June 22 in Las Vegas.
PANTHERS: Defensman Keaton Ellerby signed a one-year, one-way contract.