Boston Bruins Continue to Roll

Boston Bruins Win Second Round Playoff Opener Against Hurricanes

Neil Becker

29sports.com

Making a strong case to be considered for Team Canada in next year’s 2010 Winter Olympic games is Boston Bruins forward Marc Savard.

This 11 year veteran has continued his strong post season play by scoring two goals in helping the Eastern Conference champion Bruins beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 in game one of the Eastern Conference Semi Finals.

Questions were definately answered on Friday night about whether the  Bruins who enjoyed an 116 point regular season would be able to bounce back from a nine day layoff after sweeping the Montreal Canadiens.

“When you are at this stage of the season, your athleticism should take over,” Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward said when asked about whether they will be rusty from the long layoff. “You should never be rusty at this stage of the playoffs.”

 Bruins forward Michael Ryder who at this time last year was a healthy playoff scratch for the Canadiens, scored his fifth playoff goal this spring and goalie Tim Thomas was once again stellar in making 26 saves.

“There was some rust in the first period,” Thomas who won his 11th straight game said. “Not anything that was a game-changer, but we got better and better as the game went on and shook the rust off. After nine days off, one bad period is not a bad place to be.”

Boston, who swept the Hurricanes in the regular season will try to take a strange hold of the series at home on Sunday night.

“We’ve got to know that we can beat these guys,” Hurricanes forward Eric Staal said. “It’s a best-of-seven series for a reason. We can be better; we know that. We’ve got to…forget about this one and look forward to Game 2.”