VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Canucks were victorious in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals, as Raffi Torres scored the winning goal in the final seconds of the match.
In a game that turned out to be a goalie duel, neither team could find a way to score.
Boston lead with 36-34 shots on goal, and both teams were an even zero for six on powerplay opportunities. But it was Roberto Luongo with the shut-out in the end, while Tim Thomas made several fantastic saves in the loss.
As the game wound down to the last 19 seconds, Ryan Kessler took the puck across the blue line towards the Bruins net. As Thomas came out of the net in anticipation of the shot from Kessler, Kessler fed a pass to Torres, who was left with the wide open net, to drop the puck past Thomas for the solo goal and a Canuck win.
“We got two of the best goaltenders in the League battling it out. So obviously scoring is going to be a challenge for both teams,” said Canucks Coach Alain Vigneault.
Bruin’s coach Claude Julien felt the teams were pretty even most of the game. “In the third we just seemed to lack some energy and lost our legs. They just seemed to come at us pretty hard. They kind of took the game over in the third period and obviously found a way to win it with a late goal.”
Both teams wanted to come out and make a statement in game one.
“Although we talked about discipline, we were obviously going to stand up for each other. This was the type of game that was played,” said Julien. “There’s going to be some strong emotions out there. Both teams obviously reacted to that.”
“Well, with what’s at stake, I expect both teams to want it real bad. That’s what we saw tonight,” said Vigneault.
The final score, 1-0 was before 18,860 fans at Rogers Arena. Game two will be Saturday, June 4, in Vancouver.
Contact the writer at Shellie.Lima@prohockeynews.com
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