RALEIGH, NC – Just a week ago the Boston Bruins had taken a 1-0 lead in their series against the Carolina Hurricanes with a 4-1 win and it looked as if they would only need three games of their four game series to move on.
My, how times have changed. On this Friday the Carolina Hurricanes are coming off a dominating 4-1 win of their own and the Hurricanes hold a three games to one stranglehold on the series.
It wasn’t by how much the Hurricanes won the game, but just how much they dominated the first-seeded Bruins when it counted. The first period belonged to the Hurricanes and they took the lead on Eric Staal’s power play goal. Boston had a strong second period to tie the game on a power play goal of their own. But with their backs to the wall the Bruins were completely bottled up by the Hurricanes who scored three unanswered goals and outshot Boston 13-7 in a pivotal third period.
Early on it appeared it would be the Bruins night to win. Before Staal could get on the board Phil Kessel had rang the post and P.J. Axelsson was stoned on a breakaway by Carolina goaltender Cam Ward. It appeared it was just a matter of time before Boston broke through, but after Ward’s save Carolina would strike first.
Boston had several chances to clear the puck while trying to kill an undisciplined David Krejci roughing call, but they failed to do so. Boston defender Shane Hnidy, in the game for an injured Andrew Ference, stretched his stick out to try to tip it out of the zone, but the only thing Hnidy accomplished was to put the puck directly on Staal’s stick. The Hurricanes alternate captain made no mistakes as he ripped the puck past Boston’s Tim Thomas in the blink of an eye. Boston would miss out on another chance when a Zdeno Chara wrist shot from the left point hit the post behind Ward, but all-in-all the period belonged to Carolina who led in shots 12-4 after twenty minutes of play.
The second period was Boston’s best period of the series since the third period of Game 2 when they blitzed Ward in an effort to tie that game. It wasn’t enough as they were only able to tally a Marc Savard score with Carolina’s Tuomo Ruttu in the box for holding. The failure by Boston to take the lead despite winning the period would set the stage for their demise.
If indeed the top-seeded Bruins fall to Carolina in this round the third period of Game 4 will be the one to live in infamy. Carolina failed to allow the Bruins to get started and then capitalized on a hooking call assessed to Chara just over a minute into the period. The penalty short-circuited Boston’s attempt for a fast start and doomed them when Carolina scored.
Once again it would be Jussi Jokinen who would score the game-winner for the second game in a row. After a scramble Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour tapped the puck in front of the goal and Jokinen swooped in to draw blood. From there on in it would be all Hurricanes who, backed by their rabid crowd, declined to play it safe with the lead. Carolina not only pressured the Bruins defense but stifled any life remaining in the Bruins attack.
Boston finally cracked when Sergei Samsonov lifted a back-hander past Thomas and Staal registered his league-leading ninth goal of the playoffs while a delayed penalty was being called against Chara.
With the win the Hurricanes have a chance to finish the series in Boston on Sunday evening. If the Hurricanes can manage to do so it would set them up for some idle time as the Pittsburgh-Washington series will go at least six games. As a matter of fact this series is the only one of the NHL’s four current series where a team holds a 3-1 lead. The other series are all tied at two games apiece.
Game Notes
With his two goals Staal set the Hurricanes record for all-time playoff points with 40 to his credit. Staal passed Carolina associate coach Ron Francis for the honors…After a four-for-nine start on the power play the Bruins failed to score in 17 consecutive power plays before Savard connected in the second period…Both teams made changes in the lineup. Carolina replaced a flu-ridden Ryan Bayda with Tim Conboy while the Bruins exchanged Hnidy for Ference and Shawn Thornton for Byron Bitz. Ference was injured in Game 4 while Thornton was a healthy scratch…Boston continues to roll four lines as Bitz (9:41) was the only Bruins player to play less than ten minutes in the game. On the other hand, with Ference out Hnidy was little more than an afterthought (in defenseman terms) as he only skated for just over 12 minutes.
Contact tom.schettino@prohockeynews.com
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