With a series lead at stake, the Boston Bruins finally returned to their
The Bruins began the first period with a handful of quality chances on Carey Price. As the period wore on, the two teams regressed to the archetypes that have colored this Original Six rivalry for decades: the bruising, hard-hitting Bruins and the fast, skilled Habs.
Carl Soderberg, who has been one of the most solid performers in black and gold throughout the series, put the B’s on the board early. Loui Eriksson found his Swedish countryman in front of the net for a post-clanging goal at 13:20. It was Soderberg’s first career NHL playoff goal, becoming the sixth Bruins player this season to reach the milestone (Reilly Smith, Dougie Hamilton, Jordan Caron, Justin Florek, Matt Fraser).
Prior to Game 5, the Bruins had not scored a power play goal against Montreal in the playoffs since Michael Ryder did so on April 18, 2009. Reilly Smith finally ended that drought as Boston took the ice for the second period with the man-advantage following Tomas Plekanec’s goaltender inference call. Smith put back the rebound off Dougie Hamilton’s blast from the blue line at 1:04 to increase the Bruins’ lead.
With the PPG drought now but a distant memory, the flood gates lay wide open. After Plekanec’s third penalty of the night generated another Bruins power play, Torey Krug went to work. The 5-foot-9 defenseman squirted the puck out of the scrum along the boards, finding a wonderfully lonesome Jarome Iginla, who beat Price for his fourth goal of the playoffs at 1:36.
Brad Marchand, perhaps inspired by legendary pest Ken Linseman’s presence at the Garden, took a foolish holding penalty. The Habs would score on the resulting power play thanks to Michael Gallagher, who was jawing with Marchand before puck drop.
A bad Boston line change let David Desharnais slip the through for a breakaway near the end of the second period. Hamilton make a spectacular diving poke while Rask stood tall to keep the two-goal lead secure.
The Habs battled back through the third period but consistently ran into a layered Boston defense. Loui Eriksson scored his second goal of the playoffs as the third line crashed the net at 14:12. Matt Fraser shot at Price’s pad, serving up a juicy rebound for Eriksson.
Matt Bartkowski earned his fifth penalty of the series when P.K. Subban took an exaggerated, LeBronesque flop near the end of regulation. On the resulting power play, it was Subban who scored at 17:31, cutting the Bruins’ lead to 4-2.
Boston would not relinquish the lead, however, holding on in the final moments to take a 3-2 series lead heading to the Bell Centre in Montreal. The Bruins are playing their best hockey yet, and thus, there’s reason to panic in Montreal.
