By: Jeff Playdon | Follow me on Twitter @PlaydonJeff
After allowing a goal 14 seconds into Overtime, the Bruins returned to T.D Garden, trailing 2-0 in the series. Boston’s newest villain, Alexandre Burrows, was the one who scored the overtime game-winner and put Vancouver up 2-0 in the series. The lineups for both teams stayed the same, along with the starting goaltenders. Rene Rancourt led an outstanding rendition of the national anthem, and TD Garden was electric. Game three is here folks, buckle up.
Horton Stretchered Off/Rome gets tossed
The puck was dropped, and the Bruins pressured Luongo early with two quick shots in the first 30 seconds. 5:07 into the first, Aaron Rome made one of the dirtiest hits in NHL history. A couple of seconds after Nathan Horton passed the puck at the blue line, Rome jumped into Horton with an elbow to the face, and Horton was out cold on the ice. Not a pleasant site for Bruins fans. A buzzing T.D Garden was now an eerie silence throughout the building. Out came the stretcher and the neck brace, and about 10 minutes later, Horton was finally stretched out. Aaron Rome was immediately tossed from the game, and Boston was on a five-minute powerplay. Despite being on the powerplay for five minutes, Boston couldn’t score, and it was back to even strength.
A minute after Boston’s powerplay expired, Vancouver was going on their first powerplay of the night. Adam McQuaid was heading to the box for delay-of-game. Boston killed off the penalty, and the game was still scoreless, with 6:18 left in the first. The aggressiveness picked up throughout the period, but neither team could score, and after 20 minutes, it was a scoreless tie. With Horton ruled out for the rest of the game, it was uncertain if Boston would be able to respond.
Bruins Get Hot in the Second
Second-period action was underway, and just 11 seconds in, Andrew Ference put Boston on top. Ference fired a shot from the blue line, and the puck knuckled into the net. The Garden finally had something to cheer for, and it was electric. Two minutes passed, and Boston had a chance to make it 2-0. Jeff Tambellini was called for hooking, and Boston was on the powerplay.
Approaching the end of the powerplay, veteran Mark Recchi made it 2-0. Recchi fired a shot that went off a Canuck player’s stick, and the puck snuck by Luongo to make it 2-0 Bruins. Two minutes later, Vancouver would get a chance to cut the lead back to one. Andrew Ference was called for tripping, and Vancouver was on the powerplay. The Canucks couldn’t score, and Boston successfully killed off the penalty. Another two minutes passed, and again Boston was going to be shorthanded. Lucic was headed to the box for slashing.
Halfway into Vancouver’s powerplay, Brad Marchand scored a beautiful shorthanded goal to make it 3-0 Boston. Marchand intercepted the puck at half-ice, passed the puck to himself off the board around a Vancouver player, deked Luongo, and roofed the puck behind Luongo. The second period continued, and Boston’s onslaught wasn’t done yet. With 4:13 left in the second, David Krejci increased Boston’s lead to 4-0, and Vancouver looked like a deer in the headlights. Krejci picked up Ryder’s rebound in front of Luongo, and he buried it.
The Black&Gold faithful in attendance were deafening and were letting Vancouver know who was in net for them, chanting “Luongoooo, Luongoooo.” With 2:24 left in the second, Johnny Boychuk headed to the box for high-sticking. It was called a double-minor, so Vancouver would be on the powerplay for four minutes. Vancouver couldn’t score before the second-period horn sounded, and after 40 minutes, Boston was up 4-0. The third period would start with Vancouver on the powerplay for 1:36.
3rd Period Gets Chippy
The final 20 minutes of play were underway, and Boston was able to kill off the rest of Vancouver’s powerplay. During the first 11:16 in the third period, it was a penalty galore. With both team’s physicality picking up, Boston answering to Aaron Rome’s dirty hit, Tim Thomas laying out Henrik Sedin, and Vancouver’s tempers reaching a boiling point, game three was getting really nasty. In the first 11:16 of the third period, there were 76 penalty minutes combined for both teams (way too much to write in a history article, so why not sum it up briefly). Anyway, after a few fights, lots of shoving and pushing, and Lucic gloriously taunting Burrows by sticking his fingers by his mouth, Daniel Paille scored a beautiful shorthanded goal to make it 5-0 Boston.
Roughly two minutes later, Jannik Hansen scored to put Vancouver on the board finally. It was still 5-1 Boston. Coming to the final two minutes of regulation, Mark Recchi scored his second goal to make it 6-1 Boston. 26 seconds later, Chris Kelly decided he wanted to join in on the fun and scored a goal of his own to make it 7-1 Boston. A late charging penalty was called on Raffi Torres with 1:07 left in the game, and with 31 seconds left in the game, Michael Ryder scored on the powerplay to make it 8-1. Finally, 31 seconds later, the final horn sounded, and Boston won game three in dominating fashion.
Bruins Dominate and Win Game Three
After Nathan Horton was stretchered off the ice, it was uncertain if Boston would be able to deal with the adversity and win game three. Well, the Bruins did indeed handle the adversity and were able to dominate Vancouver for the next two periods and win game three 8-1. Going forward, though, it looked like Nathan Horton would most certainly miss the rest of the series, meaning Claude Julien would definitely have to mix up the lines. What was most definitely one of the most emotional games at T.D Garden was one for the ages. With Boston only trailing the series 2-1, they would look to tie the series on home-ice June 8th.
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