VANCOUVER, B.C. – Alex Burrows, who some questioned whether he should even be playing after an alleged biting incident in game one, scored the game winning goal just eleven seconds into overtime, with a final score of 3-2.
Vancouver took the early lead when Burrows slipped a wrist shot past Tim Thomas at 12:12 of the first period. Chris Higgins and Sami Salo assisted on the goal.
Milan Lucic evened the score with the Bruins first goal of the series, by beating Roberto Luongo at the 9:00 minute mark of the second period. Lucic, stationed in front of the net, pounced on a rebound on a shot from Johnny Bogchuk. David Krejci also earned an assist on the play. Veteran Mark Recchi gave the Bruins their first lead of the game when he scored a power play goal with Aaron Rome serving a holding penalty. Recchi tipped a shot by Zdeno Chara past Luongo. Patrice Bergeron also assisted on the power play goal.
Daniel Sedin tied the game again at 9:37 of the third period, by converting on a great pass from Burrows. Alexander Edler fed a pass to Burrows in the slot, who quickly slipped a pass to the breaking Sedin, sending a wrist shot past Thomas to finish the outstanding play.
In the overtime period, Burrows, who earned the game’s first star, skated in on goal, which brought Thomas out the net. Burrows then circled around the net, and while battling Chara, sent a wrap-around goal into the empty net as Thomas tried to get back in position to give the Canucks the win after only 11 seconds into the extra period.
Canucks Coach Alain Vigneault is pleased with Burrows play to date.
“He plays five-on-five, he plays power-play, and he kills penalties. So, you know, he’s overall one of our go-to guys. Again tonight he came up big in key moments.”
Vancouver has pushed the pace in the post-season, and especially in these last two games late in the game.
“If you look at our stats during the regular season, I think we were the best team in the third period as far as scoring goals. So that hasn’t changed throughout the playoffs. We can push the pace and create scoring chances. I thought we did.” He continued discussing the Sedin’s line, which “spent a lot of time in [the Bruin’s] end, wearing down their defense. It paid off for us. We were able to tie the game.”
Bruin’s coach Claude Julien is not ready to throw in the towel yet. They are definitely in a little hole, but it’s not over yet.
“I don’t think we played very well, to what our standards are all about. I think the decision making, the puck management, is what’s costing us games. I thought on our breakouts, we needed to move the puck a little better. Puck management, D-to-D passes weren’t crisp or on the tape. We bottled a lot of pucks in our own end tonight. That allowed their forecheck to be efficient. ”
As the Bruins return home, Julien says they will “forget what just happened here tonight, as far as the loss is concerned. But you got to learn from what we did wrong, our mistakes. We got to correct those. We know if we correct those things, things are going to be a lot better for us. ”
The series heads to Boston for game three on Monday.
Contact the writer at Jack.Lima@prohockeynews.com
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