BOSTON – A new Stanley Cup Champion will skate the trophy around the ice this season. All because Joel Ward was exactly where he should have been last night in the overtime session.
He was there because the Bruins tried to blast the puck into the Capitals offensive zone from near the red line. But the attempt to dump the puck hard into the zone was blocked off by the Caps Mike Knuble near his blue line. The puck rebounded off Knuble toward the Boston blue line where he caught up with the puck and drove the net for a backhand shot.
Boston’s Tim Thomas made the initial save in the frenzy but the puck bounced to a waiting Ward who backhanded his own shot past Thomas for the winner.
For the first time in NHL history a seven-game series was decided by one goal in each game.
The game was as tight a match as possible with each team looking for mistakes by the other.
Washington scored first on a loose effort from Milan Lucic in the first period. His effort to skate the puck out of the zone was blocked off by The Caps Jason Chimera grabbed the puck and sent a pass to John Carlson whose shot on net was deflected off the stick of Matt Hendricks. The deflection caught Thomas out of position for the puck and it found the back of the net for the 1-0 lead for the Caps.
The Bruins knotted the game in the second when the Caps were unable to cleanly get the puck out of their zone. The Bruins were buzzing the zone and trapped the puck when Andrew Ference corralled it and sent a shot on goal that Braden Holtby stopped but gave up a big rebound to the left side where Johnny Boychuk picked it up and fired another shot on goal.
This time the puck skittered between Holtby’s pads in the crease. Boston’s Tyler Sequin crashed the net and slapped the puck home for the goal.
Now the Caps await their second round opponent. Thursday night’s two game sevens will decide the pairings.
Contact LM.Davis@prohockeynews.com
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