MONTREAL – Goals less than a minute apart by the Montreal Canadiens had Bruins observers thinking about the season’s post-mortem. At that point of the game the home team was dominating the Bruins and a 3-1 series lead seemed inevitable. After those goals Montreal was holding a 3-1 lead and were out shooting the Bruins by a 29-12 margin. Yet that cliche’ about playing a full 60 minutes, or nearly 62 minutes in this example, became reality on this night in La Belle Province.
Michael Cammalleri and Andrei Kostitsyn provided the Canadiens some tangible assets for their domination, but something happened to the Bruins. Instead of meekly going under Boston fought back answering every Montreal tally and lead until the rules said Montreal could fight no more.
Boston erased the aforementioned 3-1 lead, saw the Canadiens reclaim the lead and then scored two unanswered goals to knot the series at two games apiece. The loss extended Montreal goaltender Carey Price’s playoff home-ice losing streak to seven games.
The game started fairly evenly but changed mid-way through the first period. Montreal started pouring shot after shot on Boston goaltender Tim Thomas until Brent Sopel’s slap shot eluded the Bruins netminder. Montreal was unable to get anything else on the scoreboard and a partial break and well-placed wrist shot by Michael Ryder knotted the game.
It was at that point Cammalleri and Kostitsyn scored 45 seconds apart and it appeared the rout was on. But Boston was not ready to call it a season. Andrew Ference’s slap shot fluttered past Price and then Patrice Bergeron tucked home a perfect feed from Brad Marchand. After a night of watching swirling red jerseys the Bruins unexpectedly had tied the game at three aside after two periods.
P.K. Subban appeared to nail Boston down when he scored early in the third period, but the Bruins rallied back once again. This time it would be Chris Kelly who tallied the game-tying goal when he tapped home a rebound of a Rich Peverley shot. On this night the two clubs would need overtime to decide the winner.
The line of Kelly, Peverley and Ryder, basically silent during this postseason, would combine once more during this contest. The game-winning play began as an attempt to enter the Bruins zone. Montreal’s Brian Gionta sent a pass to Travis Moen who was coming over the Bruins line.
Shortly into the Bruins offensive zone Boston defenseman Johnny Boychuk stripped Moen of the puck and quickly fed it to Kelly. Kelly and Ryder combined to get the puck to Peverley who caught a surprised Montreal defense changing. The quick movement up ice led to a three-on-one opportunity. Yet it appeared the opportunity would go to waste as Peverley missed the goal with his shot. However Kelly captured the rebound off the end boards and fired the puck from behind the net across the crease to a waiting Ryder. Ryder, who as recently as two weeks ago was a healthy scratch for not being productive, settled the puck before beating Price for the game-winning goal.
Boston’s win sends the clubs back to Massachusetts for what could be a pivotal game five on Saturday. Neither club has won on home ice during this series and a loss at home would but the Bruins in-between a rock and a hard place. The series has been a strange one to date. Usually the team which carries the play has wound up losing the contest. The goaltending on both sides has been beatable and Montreal has been physical enough to negate the Bruins size advantage. In short about the only thing you can be sure of in this series is the game will probably be close and come down to the wire.
Contact Tom.Schettino@prohockeynews.com
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