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By Brian J. Scully
BostonBruins.com
BOSTON - Jose
Theodore saved his best for last. And it sunk the Boston Bruins.
The Bruins and Montreal Canadiens battled tooth-and-nail
for 49 minutes and eight seconds, before Richard Zednik scored at 10:52 of the third to break a scoreless tie. Theodore made
it stand up, putting the finishing touches on a 32-save shutout that propelled Montreal into the second round.
"It
was disappointing," said coach Mike Sullivan. "I thought our guys played extremely hard tonight. We had our chances to score
goals. We probably deserved a better fate tonight, but that's the nature of sports.
"From my standpoint, I was proud
of our players. I thought they left everything on the ice."
On the game winning goal, Alexei Kovalev carried the puck
around the back of the net with Hal Gill in pursuit. He then turned and fired a shot wide that hit off the side of the net
and popped out in front. Zednik charged and fired the rebound into the open top half of the net to make it 1-0, providing
all the margin of scoring that the Canadiens would need.
"It's the most disappointed that I think I've ever been,"
said Nick Boynton. "I don't know. We have such a great team, such a great group of guys. Everybody played a great game tonight.
It was too bad."
The effort of Theodore only partly outshined that of the Bruins' Andrew Raycroft, a rookie who
played his heart out in Game 7.
Raycroft said afterwards that the goal will be something that he replays in his head
over and over.
"You can't do anything," said Raycroft. "I played it exactly the way I wanted to. It goes off
the net that way, that's the game. The unfortunate part of the game. I'm not going to put my stick on the side of the net.
I'm not covering the side of the net. I'm covering the front of the net.
"It was at least a foot off the net and it
went directly in front of the net. It's a tough way to end the season, but you just have to deal with it. It's going to go
through my head a lot this summer."
With the series over, the nature of Joe Thornton's injury was finally revealed.
"He
had torn cartilage between his rib cage," said Sullivan. "The nature of that injury is usually a six-week healing process.
He came back in less than a week. He played under extreme pain. Most players I know probably wouldn't have played under the
circumstances."
The Bruins got off to the start they were looking to in the first period, by taking a pro-active, yet
safe, approach to pressuring the puck.
Sergei Samsonov nearly scored his third goal of the season 40 seconds into the
game, when he broke in two-on-one with Michael Nylander, but Theodore was there to make the stop.
The Bruins then turned
up the hitting as the line of Martin Lapointe, Travis Green, and Patrice Bergeron wreaked havoc on the Montreal defenseman.
In the span of 30 seconds, Green had two big hits and Lapointe had another to turn the momentum in Boston's favor.
At
7:32, they faced their first challenge of the night when Brian Rolston was called for hooking. During the ensuing power play,
the Bruins limited Montreal to just two chances. On the second, Raycroft made a remarkable save on Mike Ribeiro at the left
post. Ribeiro received a pass all alone at the bottom of the right faceoff circle, but Raycroft stuffed the shot by diving
back with his glove arm to keep the Canadiens off the board.
The Bruins had another great opportunity at 12:04, when
Bergeron made a nifty little move to get the puck to Green in front for the shot.
Lapointe created a loose puck along
the left wing boards and Bergeron picked it up at around the hash marks. He then moved to his left to gain body position on
the backchecking Saku Koivu, before moving to his backhand to dish out front to Green. Green one-timed it on net, only to
hit the post. On the ensuing scrum, Lapointe and Sheldon Souray battled, earning each a two-minute roughing minor for their
efforts.
In the final minute, thanks to an aggressive move to the net by Mike Knuble from the right wing, the Bruins
nearly poked in a loose puck. Four Bruins found themselves in front of the net battling away, but they could not slip the
puck by Theodore.
Steve Begin was called for slashing with 13.7 seconds to play in the first period. Boston couldn't
muster an opportunity in the waning moments of the first, after losing the ensuing faceoff, but had two decent scoring opportunities
in the second.
Sergei Gonchar blasted a slap shot from the point after a strong passing sequence and then Knuble had
a chance from the slot, but Theodore stopped both.
Raycroft answered with a top-notch save of his own at 4:36 of the
second. Francis Bouillon skated down the right wing and swooped in on Raycroft, switching from backhand to forehand, only
to see Raycroft stop his shot on net.
The Bruins had their best opportunity of the period die in Theodore's pads at
6:40. Samsonov dribbling frantically carried the puck over the blue line and stopped up. He snapped a shot on net and Glen
Murray followed it up. Murray had two chances, but Theodore was there for both.
The critical moment, though, came at
15:49, when Lapointe was called for interference, sending the Canadiens on the power play.
Midway through, Koivu had
a chance to walk in all alone from the left faceoff circle, but Raycroft made the save. Then, in the final seconds, Jim Dowd
whiffed on a one-timer pass from Koivu that cut across the crease and appeared destined for the back of the net.
The
Bruins dominated the early part of the third period, jumping out to a 10-1 shot advantage, but it was Montreal's second shot
of the period that gave them the only goal they would need.
Zednik rounded out the scoring and put the game out of
reach at 19:52, when he buried the puck in the empty net to make it 2-0.
"We're all disappointed," said Sullivan. "I
thought we had a quality hockey team. We accomplished a lot. We put ourselves in the best position to compete in the post-season.
I thought management did a great job with the acquisitions to try and build a team that could succeed in the playoffs, and
we're disappointed. There's no question about that.
"But, I'm certainly proud of these guys. It was a privilege to
coach them. It's disappointing, from my standpoint, that it ended so abruptly."
Game Notes: The game marked
the sixth time that the two teams have played a Game 7 in their history. The Canadiens have won 4-out-of-6 .The series marked
the first time in Bruins' history that the team surrendered a 3-1 lead in a playoff series. Theodore stopped all 32 shots
he faced. Raycroft stopped 24-of-25. The Bruins went 0-for-1 on the power play. The Canadiens went 0-for-3.
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