The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Boston Bruins were eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens in a Game 7 that saw Boston squander its first 20 minutes and never quite recover.
Matt Bartkowski’s defensive woes, which plagued the Bruins throughout the Eastern Conference Semifinal series, continued in Game 7. The young D-man who scored the first goal of the Bruins last Game 7 (against the Toronto Maple Leafs in last year’s first round) was caught standing still, allowing Dale Weise easy passage to Tuukka Rask for the goal just 2:18 into the first period.
Montreal took away the Bruins’ breakout in the first. Boston appeared unable to generate any quality ventures into to the Habs’ zone. The Bruins consistently made panicky passes, resulting in turnover after turnover. Twice in the period Zdeno Chara headed to the box, but a shaky Boston penalty kill turned both chances away.
Despite a late surge, including the period’s best attempt on Price blown by Brad Marchand, the Canadiens were firmly in control of the game heading into the first intermission.
The Bruins began the second period on the penalty kill once again, this time on a dubious unsportsmanlike conduct call assessed to Marchand for spraying Price with ice. The bad call appeared to incense the B’s into action, and for the first half of the second period, Boston played with a fire absent from the preceding 20 minutes.
That fire would smolder, however. David Desharnais whipped a cross-ice pass to Max Pacioretty, who slapped a one-timer past Rask at 10:22 to improve the Canadiens’ lead, 2-0. The Bruins would continue to struggle until the two-minute mark, when David Krejci left a drop pass for Torey Krug, who fired a blast at Price, catching Jarome Iginla for a redirection on its way in. With that power play goal — the first Price surrendered in 104 minutes — Boston halved Montreal’s lead.
The third period saw the Bruins begin to amass more quality chances at the other end of the ice, but came away empty-handed each time. The first line, led by a finally visible David Krejci drove into the offensive zone, but to no avail. The shots piled up in Boston’s favor. As the game waned to a close, it became apparent: either the Bruins would score, or Montreal would suck all the air out of the building.
Well, TD Garden got a few thousand pounds lighter.
With Johnny Boychuk in the box for an interference call, the Canadiens power play went to work. Danny Briere, who so troubled the Bruins through the Philadelphia Flyers’ miraculous comeback in 2010, banked a shot of Chara’s skate. The shot trickled past Rask for the go-ahead goal.
Though the Bruins had the man-advantage for the remainder of regulation after an interference call on Markov, they failed to capitalize. After all, that was the theme of this series: a failure to execute.
Iginla must wait another year to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup. Piece will be moved. Decisions will be made. And in the East, two teams will seek to regain the glory they’ve been missing for two decades.
