Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens: B's Win Season Series in the Shootout

With the final game of the season series, the Boston Bruins were in Montreal to take on the Canadiens, and it proved to be a thriller.

The Bruins are currently in second place and seem to be a shoo-in to make the playoffs, while the Habs are on the outside looking in sitting at 12th place in the Eastern Conference.

That being said, there are plenty of games left for the Habs to get into the postseason, but to do that, they are going to need some help.

Not only do they need to win some games, but they need the Washington Capitals, Winnipeg Jets and New York Islanders to start losing.  The final hurdle, if the standings hold to their order, will be the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are three points up on the Caps and holding the eighth and final spot.

The Bruins just came off a 3-0 loss at the hands of the New York Rangers and had to travel the short distance to the Bell Centre in Montreal the very next day to face a rested Habs squad.

The game was to decide if the season series was going to be a three-all affair, or if the B's would take the series four games to two.

The Habs were pumped to take on their old rivals and it was a physical battle.

First Period

The scoring came late on a turnover at the Montreal end.

Habs defenseman Hal Gill was behind the goal line when Bruins forward Brad Marchand took the puck from him.  They had a quick stick exchange and it resulted in Gill snapping the puck to a wide open Andrew Ference.  

Ference then wristed a shot from the left faceoff circle to get it past the left of Montreal's netminder Carey Price.

Gill's response said it all.  

1-0 Bruins.

The game was marred with controversy when Tomas Plekanec fired the puck out of the zone and caught Bruins captain Zdeno Chara in the chin sending him to the ice. 

Instead of whispered concern, the Montreal faithful cheered as the player who many consider the most hated in Montreal was lying on the ice getting his head together.  The resulting cut required stitches and, fortunately, Chara was able to leave the ice under his own power and return in the second frame.

Unlike the Montreal crowd, Plekanec showed some class and skated up to check on his opponent.  More on that in the Good, Bad and Ugly.

Second Period

Early in the period, the Bruins were on the latter half of the double minor of Lars Eller.  He clipped and cut Bruins center David Krejci on the chin.

With less than 30 seconds left of the man advantage, it was the Habs who came out on top.  P.K. Subban skated from end to end and passed the puck in front of the net to allow Mathieu Darche to tie up the game.

The Bruins came back with a highlight goal by from former Canadien Benoit Pouliot.  Rich Peverley fed Puoliot the puck and he faked out Chris Campoli by faking right, then quickly slid the puck right and following it in.

It seemed that it caught Price off guard as Pouliot put the puck past him through the five-hole. 

2-1 Bruins.

Both teams seemed to really want to get up close and personal as there were four goalie interference calls made on both teams.  Three of them intertwined with one another, as there were end-to-end calls to offset and then there was a call on Erik Cole to put the Bruins on the power play.

In the abbreviated man advantage, Tyler Seguin sent a pass to Patrice Bergeron, who was standing all by himself behind the goal line and quickly made a step or two to roof it from a bad angle.  

His shot put the B's up by two at the end of the period.  

3-1 Bruins.

Third Period

The Habs came rumbling back.

Early in the final frame, Max Pacioretty let one fly from the point and it went off of the insides of Thomas' pads and just trickled past the goal line.  

3-2 Bruins.

A little later, Chara turned the puck over to Cole right in front of Thomas, and Cole deked the pads off of him to tie the game.  

Three all.

With 2:22 left in the game, Marchand nearly won it in regulation.  He rocketed a shot over Price's left shoulder, but it went off the post.  That was one of three shots that hit the post that night.

Overtime

OT solved nothing.

Seguin scored the lone shootout goal, while Thomas stood tall and stopped all three shots he faced.

The Good

Pouliot's goal.  Made the highlights.

Tomas Plekanec.  He showed class and concern when his clearing attempt toppled Chara.  I applaud this player for having the sportsmanship to check on his opponent.

The Bad

Two goals that the Canadiens made were largely due to sloppy and lazy play on Milan Lucic and Chara.  They cannot expect to win games playing like that.

The Ugly

The cheers of the Montreal Faithful for Chara getting cut open on a puck shot at him on a clearing attempt.  Stay classy, Montreal...

My Take

A heck of a game that lived up to my expectations.  Two vastly different styles of play that went the distance and then some.

I was very disappointed in the way the Montreal fans at the Bell Centre handled themselves when Chara was struck in the chin with the puck.

I, myself, cheer for the bone-crunching hit.  When a fight breaks out, I cheer for the combatants.

That's where I draw the line, however.  When a player is injured as a result of a hit/fight, my cheers will go silent, my emotions will go from excitement to concern.

When Pacioretty went down on that fateful night, I watched the young up-and-comer lie on the ice, not sure what had happened.  After seeing the replays, I cringed when the hit went horribly wrong.  Bruins fans were all concerned because a young man was hurt and we were hoping that he was okay.

To see the Montreal fans cheer and jeer the Bruins captain left a very bad taste in my mouth. 

There was no telling if he was seriously injured and the cheers didn't occur when he got up, nor when Pleks went to check on him.  The fans cheered right after he went down.  It makes me wonder of the maturity and mentality of the fans at the Bell Centre.

When one of their players is so much as touched, the crowds are incensed and want blood.  When one of their players commit the same or worse, they cheer.

They claim that Brad Marchand is one of the dirtiest players in the league, yet, when P.K. Subban commits several slew foots in a month, it's deemed fine in the eyes of the bleu, blanc et rouge.

I fully believe that the fans in Montreal's Hab Nation are beyond fanatics.  For the most part, they are mindless twits who allowed a love for the team to turn into a religion.  A religion that seems to allow common sense to go out the window.

This is Cory Ducey saying, "Hit hard, keep it clean and stay classy, Montreal."