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BOSTON — After 13 months and 13 games of huffing and puffing against the Montreal Canadiens, the Boston Bruins finally exhaled a sigh of relief against their long-time rivals.
The Bruins snapped a 13-game losing string against the Canadiens when centre Marc Savard hopped over the boards to score the winner in overtime for a 2-1 victory at the TD Banknorth Garden Sunday night.
Savard's heroics, 9 minutes 25 seconds into the extra period, put the Bruins back in the opening-round best-of-seven playoff series, which they trail 2-1, with the fourth game in Boston tomorrow.
"You never want to get too high or too low," said Savard, who scored his first career Stanley Cup playoff goal. "We didn't get too low after the first game [a 4-1 Montreal win] and we responded with a better game [in the second game] and even better in this one."
Boston Bruins Dennis Wideman and Marc Savard celebrate after Savard scored the game-winning goal in overtime of Game 3 against the Montreal Canadiens in Boston on Sunday. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
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- Boston Bruins
- Montreal Canadiens
- Andrew Alberts
- Steve Begin
- Zdeno Chara
- Andrew Ference
- Josh Gorges
- Phil Kessel
- Marc Savard
- Bryan Smolinski
- Tim Thomas
- Aaron Ward
Savard, who is playing in his first NHL postseason after participating in 659 regular-season games, credited teammate Peter Schaefer for the winning goal.
The Canadiens were headed toward the Bruins' end and when it appeared that Steve Begin was about to drift a shot on Boston goaltender Tim Thomas, the Montreal defencemen headed for a line change.
But the puck was turned over and the Canadiens were caught. In the attempt to cover up and get into position, Montreal centre Bryan Smolinski was called for a penalty on Schaefer, but the call was delayed because the latter kept the puck alive.
When Thomas got to the bench, Savard jumped on the ice as the extra attacker and eventually slammed in a cross-ice pass from Boston defenceman Dennis Wideman, who missed the second game with a suspected groin injury.
"Nobody expected us to win in four games," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said.
"I knew at one point or another, they were going to beat us."
Even though only three goals were scored Sunday night, the match was action packed. For the third consecutive game, there were plenty of hits, but this one was more wide open and the goaltenders were almost unbeatable. Thomas made 27 stops, including two game-savers in the early part of overtime. Montreal's rookie goalie, Carey Price, checked in with 29 saves.
"You would like to come out with a win after battling for 31/2 periods," Canadiens defenceman Mike Komisarek said. "You don't feel good after losing a game like this."
The Canadiens didn't have a good first period because they failed to match the Bruins' determination. Boston rookie Milan Lucic scored the game's first goal, giving his team its first lead in the series.
"He just keeps getting better and better, even in the playoffs," Boston coach Claude Julien said of his 6-foot-4, 220-pound freshman from Vancouver.
Montreal's Tom Kostopoulos banged in his own rebound to tie the score in the second period. But the game appeared destined to reach overtime because, even though both teams had excellent scoring chances on power-play opportunities, the goalies weren't in the mood to allow a goal.
Thousands of the Canadiens' faithful flocked across the border to Boston for Sunday night's game. The Bruins ranked 26th in attendance in the 30-team NHL, so there were plenty of seats available for the first Stanley Cup playoff game in Beantown since April of 2004.
It didn't help the Bruins' cause that the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees were finishing up a three-game set a few kilometres away at Fenway Park Sunday night.
Before the game, the Montreal fans congregated outside the Boston arena for an impromptu rally. Inside, however, they couldn't match the volume of the Boston fans.
"It was important that [the Bruins' fans] let them know it was our building," Julien said.
Still, there were plenty of Canadiens sweaters in the crowd, and the jeering that Bruins captain Zdeno Chara experiences every time he touches the puck at the Bell Centre in Montreal was evident from the Canadiens' fans in Boston.
