Subject :BOSTON -- Boston coach Claude Julien said the Bruins had more in their tank and they showed it Satur
BOSTON -- Boston coach Claude Julien said the Bruins had more in their tank and they showed it Saturday night. Logan Brown Jersey . The Bruins got their power play going and got under the Canadiens skin as they won 4-2 to push Montreal to the edge of a playoff precipice. Boston was crisp from the get-go and scored power-play goals 32 seconds apart early in the second period to build an insurmountable 3-0 lead. "I dont think you can look at tonight and say all of a sudden we found our game." said Julien. "I think we were better tonight but theres another game to win and, Im being honest here, its not going to be easy." Game 6 of the second-round playoff series is Monday in Montreal with the Canadiens needing a win to remain alive -- undoubtedly regretting the Game 4 overtime loss at the Bell Centre that rejuvenated the Bruins. Montreal, which outshot Boston 31-30, has trailed Boston three games to two five times before and come back to win three of those series. After a five-year post-season drought with the man advantage against the Habs, Boston broke the power-play hoodoo through back-to-back strikes by Reilly Smith and Jarome Iginla. Tomas Plekanec was in the penalty box for both goals. "I thought we were intent when we started the game but their power play gave them a lot of momentum and confidence," said Montreal coach Michel Therrien. Boston was 0-for-10 in the series on the power play and amazingly had not scored in 39 tries with the man advantage against Montreal in the post-season since Game 2 of their 2009 Conference quarter-final. "Our power play was due," Julien said by way of understatement. After the first period, the talk was of the need for more intensity, winning more battles and making stronger plays on the power play. It worked and Boston had the rare luxury of playing with a lead. The Bruins led for 46 minutes 40 seconds Saturday, some four times the 11:39 they were ahead during the first four games of the series. The Canadiens have held the lead for 106:11 of the series. Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson also scored for the Bruins, who got a strong physical game from Milan Lucic. The hulking winger cruised the ice like a shark, looking for someone to take a piece out of. A late P.K. Subban goal made the score closer than the game actually was. Brendan Gallagher also scored for Montreal. Goalie Carey Price said the Habs are up for the elimination challenge. "You back any animal into a corner, its going to be desperate," he said calmly. "I think were going to be a desperate hockey club coming into next game and I think were excited for the challenge." Game 7, if needed, would be next Wednesday in Boston. The Canadiens will need to take a deep breath before the puck drops at the Bell Centre with their season on the line. "Frustration or not, weve got to make sure we play with some more composure," said a tight-lipped Therrien. Subban complained after the game of being sprayed with water twice from the Boston bench late in the game. After raising the issue in his post-game scrum, he tried to downplayed the antics but it clearly bothered him. "It hit me in the visor. I couldnt even see the last minute and a half out there," he said. "So I was pretty upset about that ... Im sure if that was me that did it, it would be a different story. Id probably be on the news for the next three days." Therrien, who looked like he had sucked a lemon prior to taking the podium, had little to say about hockeys version of Watergate. "Yeah, we saw that," he said when asked about the water spraying. "I dont want to comment on that," he added when pressed on the matter. Julien said he didnt see it and wouldnt condone it. After two games that features a total of five penalties, the referees remembered to bring their whistles with them Saturday and called 11 penalties. Montreal was 2-for-5 on the night with the man-advantage but was 0-for-3 in the first period. "I strongly believe that if we would have gotten a goal on one of those first power plays, it could have been the difference in the game," said Subban. Therrien, meanwhile, said his team had to be better five-on-five. The line of Soderberg, Eriksson and Matt Fraser finished with two goals and three assist and was plus-six. The Bruins third line has now scored three of Bostons last five goals with Fraser accounting for the overtime winner last Thursday in Montreal. Soderberg was awarded the Bruins jacket, a hand-me-down from Boston legend Johnny Bucyk, as the teams player of the game. The capacity crowd of 17,565 at TD Garden had plenty to cheer about. Boston looked focused and physical, outhitting Montreal 39-29. Plus the Bruins managed to plug up Montreals shooting lanes. "It was one of those games where were just on the wrong side of the puck all night," said Canadiens captain Brian Gionta. Smith hit the post before either team registered a shot. The Bruins went ahead at 13:20 of the first period after Eriksson beat the lumbering Douglas Murray to the puck behind the net and sent it straight back to Soderberg, who banged the puck in off Prices pad for his first career playoff goal. It came on Bostons sixth shot of the night. It was a good omen for the Bruins, given the team scoring first won the first four games of the series and the Bruins were 5-0 in the playoffs -- and 41-6-2 during the regular season -- with the first goal. Then came the power play breakthrough as the Bruins dominated the second period. After some good puck movement had the Canadiens running around, a Dougie Hamilton shot from the point deflected in off Smiths foot. Then, after a Bruins faceoff win, a nifty Torey Krug pass from the wall found Iginla all alone and he snapped a shot past Price. Boston was bossing the game and the Habs began to lose some of their composure. But Plekanec made up for some of that time in the penalty box when he snapped a shot from the faceoff dot that went through a Boston defencemans legs before rattling in off Gallagher at 14:39 on the power play to cut the lead to 3-1. The five-foot-nine Gallagher got thumped in the corner seconds before on the play, but picked himself up and got in front of the goal to be in position to tip the puck in. The goal ended Tuukka Rasks shutout streak of 122 minutes six seconds. The Bruins kept up the pressure in the third, coming at the Canadiens. Boston calmly blunted Montreal attacks and then moved the puck up ice with speed and purpose. Erikssons goal, with 5:48 remaining, came on a three-on-two complete with some slick passing. Price denied Fraser but was powerless to stop Eriksson, who skated around him until he had a clear shot at an empty net. With Matt Bartkowski off for holding and Price on the bench, Subban scored from the point to make it 4-2 with 2:29 remaining. Therrien brought back Brandon Prust, who had sat out the last two games. Making way was veteran Daniel Briere who had played under 10 minutes each of the last three contests. Zack Smith Senators Jersey . Kevin Martin and Kevin Love paced the Timberwolves like they do so often. Martin had 27 points with some key baskets down the stretch, Love had his usual double-double, and the Timberwolves snapped a three-game losing streak with a 112-106 victory Saturday night over the suddenly slipping Dallas Mavericks. Mike Hoffman Jersey .J. -- While Martin Brodeur wasnt willing to say he stole one for the New Jersey Devils against the Columbus Blue Jackets, almost everyone else was.AURORA, Colo. - Derek Wolfe says hes finally healthy after suffering a seizure in November that doctors now believe was related to the spinal cord injury he suffered in the preseason. In an interview outside his home with Denver television stations KCNC and KMGH this week, the Broncos defensive lineman said hes back up to 280 pounds, having regained 20 of the 30 pounds he lost last season, and will resume training next week. "Im ready to go. Im going to be better than I was," said Wolfe, who had been reticent to talk to reporters during the season as he and his doctors were stumped by his symptoms that included weight loss and irritability. Wolfe was sidelined for 10 days in August after his arms and legs went numb following a frightening hit in a preseason game at Seattle on Aug. 17. He was cleared in time for the opener against Baltimore. Then, on a bus ride to the airport for a flight to Kansas City on Nov. 29, Wolfe suffered a seizure and was taken to University Hospital in Denver, where he underwent a battery of tests over four days. Wolfe practiced just twice after that, on Dec. 25 and 27, after which the Broncos sent him home to rest, realizing he wouldnt be able to return to help shore up their defence in the playoffs. "I had a bruise on my spinal cord," Wolfe told the stations. "... I thought it was fully healed and I came back a little too soon and I just kept hitting it, kept hitting it, kept hitting it. And it screwed my nervous system up a little bit, just kind of crisscrossed the wires a little bit. "And really just mentally, it was hard to deal with because I didnt know what was going on and why I was losing weight and all this, and my adrenals werent functioning right, nothing was really working right and what it came down to was I needed to let it heal, I needed to let myself heal. So, I took about two months and I just did nothing. And I feel better than Ive ever felt before." Wolfe saaid the seizure he suffered on the bus ride to the airport wasnt the kind where theres foaming at the mouth or convulsions but one in which he just suddenly felt very tired and started sweating profusely, which he dismissed as the effects of having just showered after practice and putting on his three-piece suit. Colin White Jersey. "I was thinking I just need to get to the plane so I can take a nap," Wolfe recounted. He started to slump into the aisle, however, and Von Miller grabbed him and "Terrance Knighton started yelling, Stop the bus! Stop the bus!" Wolfe recounted. Twenty-six hours later, Wolfe woke up in intensive care. So confused about where he was and why he was strapped down, he broke the hospital bed before he could be calmed down, he said. At first, he didnt realize hed been there that long and his first question was whether hed be able to play against the Chiefs that weekend. Doctors told him theyd had to put him in a medically induced coma to run tests and do spinal taps to rule out such things as brain tumors. After his comeback stalled in December and he realized he wasnt going to get back on the field for the playoffs, Wolfe retreated to his home a few miles from team headquarters and he said didnt even watch football for a while. He did go to the Super Bowl, however, in New Jersey, where he and several other defensive starters such as Von Miller, Chris Harris Jr., Kevin Vickerson and Rahim Moore watched helplessly from the sideline as the Broncos were throttled 43-8 by the Seattle Seahawks. "It was tough to sit there and watch it happen because I think if our defence was healthy, its a different ballgame," Wolfe said. "... Nothing against Seattle, theyre a great football team and they played a really good game and they had a great season, but I just really would have liked to see what it would have been like to have our true defence out there." Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys China NFL Cheap Jerseys ' ' '
|
Majalah Online