MONTREAL – If the Montreal Canadiens want to accomplish anything historical in their Centennial Season they are going to have to make some franchise history.
The Canadiens are in desperate straits after losing their third consecutive game in the playoffs to the Boston Bruins. If Montreal wants to advance they will need to win the four remaining games of the series. Despite all of their success as a franchise the Canadiens have never rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a series.
Early on in the game it appeared the Canadiens were about to pull within a game of the Bruins as they forced play and took their first lead of the series. After banging the Bruins repeatedly and putting pressure on Boston goaltender Tim Thomas the Canadiens scored off transition to take their first lead of the series.
Montreal defenseman Yannick Weber picked up an errant puck and fed it to Chris Higgins. Higgins, who struggled during the regular season, scored his second goal of the postseason when he took the puck up the left wall on a three-on-two break. After Higgins broke into the Bruins zone he failed to identify a passing partner and instead of forcing the issue Higgins fired a wrist shot past Thomas.
Just when it appeared the Canadiens were going to be able to call the period successful, disaster struck. A pass by Montreal defenseman Mike Komisarek to Greg Stewart in an effort to break out of their zone went wide and Dennis Wideman picked the puck off. With Stewart pressuring him the only play Wideman had was to wrist the puck at the net and Phil Kessel deflected the seemingly innocent shot into the goal. The score effectively canceled all the hard work and hitting the Canadiens had done in the previous 18 minutes and sent the clubs into their dressing rooms tied in what was a moral victory for the visitors.
The game continued on with ebbs and flows that changed when Boston took the lead and Montreal ratcheted up the pressure to tie. But in the end it would be a Montreal reject that pushed the Canadiens to the brink. Deemed only good enough to dress in four of Montreal’s 12 playoff games last year Michael Ryder put his former employer’s backs against the wall with his game-winning goal late in the second frame. The score came after Boston peppered Montreal netminder Carey Price with shots and Price failed to control the rebounds. Finally Wideman took a hard shot and the rebound went directly to Ryder who fired it home before the Montreal goaltender could react.
Each team had their chances to score throughout a tense third period but both Thomas and Price stood tall in their respective goals. The Bruins finally relieved the pressure when Chuck Kobasew out-raced and then out-muscled Saku Koivu to tap the puck into the net for an empty-net goal.
Boston’s Shawn Thornton and Montreal’s Weber were the second period goal scorers. Thornton’s goal came after he accepted a pass from Byron Bitz and waltzed into the slot before beating Price cleanly. Weber’s tally came after the Bruins failed to clear their zone multiple times and had to ice the puck twice. The third face-off was the charm for the Canadiens. Former Bruins center Glen Metropolit won the face-off cleanly to Weber who shot the puck from the top of the face-off circle to the left of Thomas.
The two clubs will face off for game four on Wednesday, April 20 in Montreal.
Notes
With the win the Bruins are now in position to win their first playoff series since 1999 when they beat the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round before losing to the Buffalo Sabres in the next round. The win bodes well for the Bruins as they have never lost a series in which they held a 3-0 lead.
Montreal has been skating without top defenseman Andrei Markov and then went into game three without Alex Tanguay, Mathieu Schneider and Francois Bouillon. Tanguay and Schneider have upper body injuries while Bouillon suffered a lower body injury in game two. The injuries, combined with unsatisfactory play led to wholesale changes in the lineup by Montreal coach Bob Gainey. The three aforementioned players and Sergei Kostitsyn were removed from the game two lineup and were replaced by Ryan O’Byrne, Tomas Plekanec, Matt D’Agostini and Gregory Stewart. Plekanec and D’Agostini had previously played in game one.
Milan Lucic was suspended by the NHL for game three and he was replaced in the lineup by Bitz. Bitz picked up an assist and made several big hits in just over 13 minutes of ice time in his playoff debut.
Critics have been hard on Montreal’s lack of discipline and cited it as a factor for their losses in the first two games of the series. While the lack of discipline was definitely a factor in those games game three’s result shows that Boston can defeat Montreal even when the Canadiens are not heavily penalized. As a matter of fact the Bruins were forced to kill three penalties in this game compared to just one penalty kill for the Canadiens.
There was speculation in the media the Bruins might recall one or two players from the Providence Bruins (AHL) for this game, but that did not happen. The team scratched Lucic (suspension) and defensemen Matt Hunwick (injury) and Andrew Ference (injury). Ference did skate with the team earlier in the day, but was unable to dress for action.
Contact tom.schettino@prohockeynews.com
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