Montreal Canadiens at Boston Bruins
David Krejci’s line was sent out against Tomas Plekanec’s line to start the game and one of sport’s biggest rivalries was renewed. The shots were even three to three at eight minutes into the game, though Boston clearly had the better of the chances. Despite the out-chancing, Montreal would take the lead with 8:37 left in the first period. A P.K. Subban wrist shot from the blue line eluded Tuukka Rask, who was screened inadvertently by Zdeno Chara. The Bruins finished the period with a shot attempt edge of 20-11 at 5-on-5, fairly indicative of the play.
The Habs would open the scoring 3:38 in to the second period. René Bourque would hold the puck on a 3-on-2 and fire one past Rask to make it 2-0. Midway through the period, perhaps in an attempt to spread out the talent, Montreal coach Michel Therrien moved Thomas Vanek to the fourth line. It’s not entirely on Vanek here, the Bruins had nearly double the shot attempts (30) as Montreal did (16) just past the midpoint of the second period. The Bruins did everything but score on a late power play, as Iginla was robbed by Price, and then Iginla missed on the rebound. Dougie Hamilton hit the post on a point shot, but it would remain 2-0 at the end of the second period. Carey Price was at 22 saves at the end of forty minutes. Dougie Hamilton was the game leader in CorsiFor% at 75-percent – he was on the ice for five shot attempts against in over 13 minutes of play.
Boston didn’t take long to score in the third period with a sharp-angle shot off the stick of Reilly Smith going over the shoulder of Price to make it 2-1. The Bruins would continue to attack shift after shift and would eventually tie the game less than four minutes later. A well-placed slap shot off the rush by Torey Krug beat Price again. The play was really starting to get lopsided:
#Habs have attempted three shots in the third at the 10:11 mark
— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) May 2, 2014
Despite this, a scramble in front of the Bruins net led to an open one-timer for Francis Bouiliion and he made no mistake putting it over Rask’s glove hand. Montreal couldn’t hang on, though, as a Johnny Boychuk point shot beat Price with just under two minutes left. The Canadiens would hang on to get to overtime, being outshot 14-6 in the third period.
The Bruins would continue to press from the start of overtime, the shots getting to 43-27 for Boston with 9:16 on the clock. Carey Price would make several big saves but was very fortunate in one instance when a Boston rebound shot spun just inches from an empty net. Montreal would get a late power play off a Daniel Paille tripping call, with the final shot attempts through 80 minutes in favour of Boston by a margin of 96-52.
The Bruins would kill the penalty to start the second overtime, though a later penalty from Matt Bartkowski would prove to be the difference. A face-off win eventually went to Subban, who fired a point shot past a screened Rask for the game-winner.
Montreal ended up 2-for-3 on the power play. Boston went 0-for-2. Price finished the game with 48 saves.
