2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Bruins Take Series Lead on Horton's Double OT Goal

If anybody told me that the Bruins will take the next three games after being down 2-0 in the series, I tell you that would be nice...

Well...it is nice...if you are a Boston Bruins fan.

The scoring? Low. The Play of both teams? Tight. The Tension? Extremely High.

The win was the Bruins' third in a row, their second OT win in a row and their first lead of the series.

It was also the first time that the home team won in their own barn this series.

Nobody wanted to make the mistake that will cost their team the game. Game 5 was very important to both teams and the Bruins wanted it more.

There was no scoring in the first two periods as the game had a lot of back and forth play.  There were opportunities on both sides of the ice including two stops by Michael Ryder where the puck had a clear path to Tim Thomas' right side from Tomas Plekanec, but Ryder batted the puck away with his right hand.

In another incident, Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron got pieces of the puck to redirect it way from Thomas' left side,

On the Habs' side, Carey Price nearly allowed a puck to sit on the crease with a charging Bruin but he stopped it before any damage was done.

Brad Marchand opened up the scoring in the third period by skating behind the Hab net and firing it to Bergeron.  The puck ricocheted off his stick breaking it as a result and it came right back to Marchand.  Marchand popped it in from Price's left side to give the B's the lead.

Jeff Halpern tied the game up with a scrum that resulted in the puck popping out to him right in front of Thomas and he took full advantage if the situation to force the game into OT.

The first OT solved nothing.  The second OT had some excitement.  Travis Moen passed a shot that normally, Brian Gionta buries, but Thomas came up huge to keep the game going.

"When it started, I actually came out and was playing it as if Moen would have a breakaway, because that's what it looked like,'' said Thomas. "And then I realized my D was going to get back and make it a two-on-ine, and I was out pretty far so I had to make sure I started to get my backward momentum going so I could play both the shot and the pass. and I was just fortunate enough to get a leg out and cover that part of the net.''

Just a few minutes later, a slap shot by Andrew Ference from the point and was rebounded off Price's pads right at the feet of Nathan Horton.  Horton alertly got his stick on it and put it in the open left side to give the Bruins the series lead for the first time.

Horton, who played seven years of NHL hockey before getting a crack at the playoffs, said his experience has been spectacular. "It's awesome,'' he said to Boston.com. "It's a great experience and you don't know until you're truly there, until you feel it, how exciting it is to be a hockey player. It's pretty special. It's a lot more fun when you're winning, obviously, and you're feeling good. But we need to keep this going and keep having fun out there. I'm excited to play. I'm excited and now our team is too.''

Say what you will, but if it wasn't for both goalies in this game, the score should have been much higher.  Price stopped 49 of 51 shots while Thomas faced 45 and stopped 44.  Both career highs.

My surprise of this year, and is continuing to impress me, is the play of Brad Marchand.  He is in the play and creating havoc for the Habs.  His role as an agitator has been getting to the Habs and is working well.  He has developed well in the P-Bruin organization and it is paying in dividends as he is a plucky guy that is not afraid to mix it up anywhere on the ice.

The biggest factor in this game's win was the puck control and the Bruins really stuck to the game plan to play tight but no too tight.  It seemed to be the Canadien's plan as well.

This worked for both teams, but one had to edge the other.

The irritating part of watching this game was that I had to watch it on CBC.  Glen Healy really needs to stop portraying the Bruins as dirty and the bad guy.  The Habs committed just as much shenanigans on the ice and the refs, to the most part, allowed these two teams to play.

Some of the iron horses in this game played some serious minutes.

PK Subban lead all players with 40:38.  Dennis Seidenberg had the second most TOI with 38:15.

There's going to be some tired folks on the way back to Montreal, but there is a two day gap before Game 6 is played at the Bell Centre on Tuesday so that should get everybody rested up to go at it again.

This is Cory Ducey saying "Hit Hard, But Keep It Clean."