B’s Beat Pittsburgh 3-0
Sunday, June 02, 2013
The Pittsburgh Penguins may be the better team on paper, but the Boston Bruins prefer to be the better team on the ice.
Saturday night at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, the Boston Bruins received two goals goal from David Krejci (6th and 7th of the playoffs), one from linemate Nathan Horton and some solid goaltending by Tuukka Rask en route to a 3-0 win in game 1 of the NHL's Eastern Conference Finals.
Hockey can be a funny game. One team can thoroughly outplay another as the Penguins did Boston in the first period, and still trail on the scoreboard. That is essentially what happened to Pittsburgh who out-shot Boston 12-7 in the first 20 minutes. Still, it was Krejci's goal that had Boston on top 1-0 after one.
The Bruins seemed to settle into the game a bit better in the second period which was more evenly played. The shot were even 10-10 in what turned out to be a scoreless second.
The big story of the second period was cheap-shot artist Matt Cooke's hit from behind on Boston's Adam McQuaid which earned him an ejection from the game and resulted in a 5-minute penalty. Boston's Chris Kelly received 2 minutes for roughing Cooke leading to 4-on-4 for two minutes before a 3-minute Boston power play.
The B's could not score on that power play, nor could they score on a Patrice Bergeron short-handed breakaway later in the second.
Playing with a desperation of a team that did not want to drop the series opener on its home ice, the Penguins came out aggressively in the third, but a disciplined Bruins team weathered the storm.
Not only that, Boston added to its lead with another goal by Krejci and one by Nathan Horton which effectively ended the game and silenced the Pittsburgh crowd.
NOTES:
-Both teams had ample opportunity to score on the power play but nether managed to do so. The Penguins went 0-4 with the man advantage while Boston went 0-4.
-Krejci leads all NHL players this postseason with 19 points (7G 12A). Nathan Horton assisted on both of Krejci's goals in addition to scoring one of his own.
-Sidney Crosby seemed more preoccupied with whining to the refs as opposed to trying to help his team win game 1. Crosby complained after being sent to the box in the first after a clear case of interference on Patrice Bergeron. Minutes later, Crosby was seen complaining to the officials when teammate Brooks Orpik was whistled for interference against Chris Kelly. Then, at the end of the second period, he intentionally bumped Tuukka Rask while Rask was skating off the ice. He also got into the face of Zdeno Chara at the end of the second. And, to make matters worse, with less than 2 minutes to play, he slashed Tyler Seguin out of frustration going to the box for the remainder of the game.
-Rask stopped all 30 shots he faced from the Penguins while his counterpart - Tomas Vokoun stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced. The 3 goals given up by Vokoun matches the most he has given up in 8 starts this postseason.
-While Rask played very well between the pipes, the stick work of Boston defensemen and forwards was solid all night long thwarting many potential scoring opportunities by the Penguins.
-While Cooke received a 5-minute penalty and ejection for his hit on McQuiad, Boston's Brad Marchand got a bit of a break when he hit James Neal from behind on a similar play in the second period. Marchand only received 2 minutes for boarding drawing the ire of the Pittsburgh bench and Penguins fans.
-Jaromir Jagr continues to be snakebitten this postseason as he has yet to find the back of the net. Jagr had 4 more quality shots on goal Saturday night and nothing to show for it. His 40 shots on goal this postseason are the most for any player without a playoff goal this year.
-Game 2 of the series will be played Monday night at 8pm in Pittsburgh.
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