Times wires
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
BOSTON — Zdeno Chara and David Krejci scored in the opening 63 seconds, and the Bruins added two more goals in a 95-second span in the second to beat the Flyers 5-1 Wednesday and take a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
It's the same position Boston was in last year before losing four straight games — and the series — to the Flyers.
"We're happy, but we can't get too high in the playoffs," said Patrice Bergeron, who set up Chara's goal 30 seconds into the game for his 10th assist of the postseason. "We're going to celebrate, but we're going to get right back to work and make sure we work Friday because Philly is not going to quit."
Tim Thomas made 37 saves for Boston, which hasn't reached the conference final since 1992. Whoever wins this series will have home-ice advantage against the fifth-seeded Lightning.
Brian Boucher stopped 16 shots for the Flyers before he was replaced with 4:46 left in the second after Daniel Paille and Nathan Horton scored to make it 4-0. Sergei Bobrovsky made seven saves the rest of the way.
"It's not the start that we envisioned. You want to get off to a good start, and it didn't happen," Boucher said. "It's my job to try to stop the puck, and after that, we settled down a bit. It's 2-0, and it got away from us there late in the second. It's definitely disappointing."
The Bruins came back to Boston after taking the first two games in Philadelphia to steal home-ice advantage and jumped right on the Flyers.
Boucher made the initial save on Boston's first charge, but the puck wound up in the net. Bergeron dug it out and passed it in front to Chara, who slapped it into the net just 30 seconds in. Only 33 seconds later, with the crowd still celebrating the first goal, Horton helped set up Krejci to make it 2-0.
The goals were the fastest allowed by the Flyers at the start of a playoff game in franchise history. It was the fastest a team had scored two goals to start a playoff game since the Red Wings did it in 61 seconds against Phoenix in 1998, according to STATS LLC.
| Bruins | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Flyers | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Bruins | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Flyers | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
First Period—1, Boston, Chara 1 (Marchand, Bergeron), :30. 2, Boston, Krejci 5 (Lucic, Horton), 1:03. Penalties—Lucic, Bos (goaltender interference), 9:00; Bergeron, Bos (hooking), 19:44.
Second Period—3, Boston, Paille 1 (Campbell, Boychuk), 13:39. 4, Boston, Horton 5 (Krejci, Chara), 15:14. 5, Philadelphia, Meszaros 2 (Powe, Carcillo), 16:26. Penalties—O'Donnell, Phi, major (fighting), 3:31; Horton, Bos, major (fighting), 3:31; van Riemsdyk, Phi (high-sticking), 7:05; Timonen, Phi (hooking), 17:29.
Third Period—6, Boston, Chara 2 (Krejci, Seidenberg), 18:38 (pp). Penalties—Richards, Phi (hooking), 18:06; Coburn, Phi (cross-checking), 18:14. Shots on Goal—Philadelphia 12-14-12—38. Boston 10-12-6—28. Power-play opportunities—Philadelphia 0 of 2; Boston 1 of 4. Goalies—Philadelphia, Boucher 4-4-0 (20 shots-16 saves), Bobrovsky (15:14 second, 8-7). Boston, Thomas 7-3-0 (38-37). A—17,565 (17,565).
Setoguchi's OT goal puts Sharks up 3-0
DETROIT — Devin Setoguchi scored 9:21 into overtime to cap a hat trick and give the Sharks a 4-3 victory over the Red Wings and 3-0 series lead.
Detroit allowed Dan Boyle to tie it with 4:08 left in regulation. And it failed to capitalize when Setoguchi went to the penalty box 5:14 into overtime. San Jose made it pay. Joe Thornton got the puck to Setoguchi at the top of the right circle for a wrister that beat Jimmy Howard.
Nicklas Lidstrom scored in the first for Detroit. It was his 29th playoff power-play goal, breaking Denis Potvin's record for defensemen and tying Mario Lemieux for fifth overall. His assist in the second was his 128th in the playoffs, tying Doug Gilmour for fifth.
| Sharks | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Red Wings | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Sharks | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Red Wings | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
First Period—1, San Jose, Setoguchi 2 (Thornton, Pavelski), 12:57 (pp). 2, Detroit, Lidstrom 2 (Zetterberg, Holmstrom), 19:38 (pp). Penalties—Clowe, SJ (interference), 6:29; Helm, Det (high-sticking), 11:55; Draper, Det (roughing), 16:07; I.White, SJ (tripping), 18:44.
Second Period—3, Detroit, Eaves 3 (Helm, Draper), 13:59. 4, San Jose, Setoguchi 3 (Boyle, Thornton), 14:49 (pp). 5, Detroit, Datsyuk 3 (Zetterberg, Lidstrom), 18:17 (pp). Penalties—Rafalski, Det (interference), 14:16; Setoguchi, SJ (holding), 16:33.
Third Period—6, San Jose, Boyle 1 (Wellwood, Mitchell), 15:52. Penalties—Hudler, Det (hooking), 6:22. First Overtime—7, San Jose, Setoguchi 4 (Thornton), 9:21. Penalties—Setoguchi, SJ (holding), 5:11. Shots on Goal—San Jose 11-8-16-3—38. Detroit 12-14-8-7—41. Power-play opportunities—San Jose 2 of 4; Detroit 2 of 4. Goalies—San Jose, Niemi 6-2-0 (41 shots-38 saves). Detroit, Howard 4-3-0 (38-34). A—20,066 (20,066).
Around the league: Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid, who crashed headfirst into the boards, spraining his neck, in Game 2, sat. … Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger missed his second game with what Philadelphia's 610-AM reported is a herniated disc. But center Jeff Carter returned after missing five games with a knee injury. … Predators center Steve Sullivan will sit tonight with a lower-body injury.