2011 NHL Playoffs: Bruins Blank Bolts, Take Series Lead 2-1

After the Boston Bruins went on a scoring feast with the Tampa Bay Lightning with a combined score of 11 goals, they headed to the Sunshine State to play Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals after splitting Games 1 and 2.

The Bruins needed to tighten up their defense. In Game 1, they allowed three goals in 1:25 of play. In Game 2, they had a three goal lead heading into the final frame only to walk away with a one goal win.

Patrice Bergeron returned from the mild concussion he earned at the hands of Philadelphia Flyers' Claude Giroux and he looked good from the start.

Shawn Thornton became the healthy scratch, so Tyler Seguin can play as he has proven to be a force, taking six points in two games and was the first teenager to earn four points in an NHL Playoffs' single period.

Bergeron is a difference maker as most will agree that he is among the most complete players in the league. He continued with his face off wizardry winning 18 of 28 for 64 percent.

David Krejci had similar success winning 13 of 18 for 72 percent showing the Bruins dominance at the face-off further limiting Tampa Bay's chances at the net.

With the home ice advantage, many would bet that the Lightning would most likely employ their 1-3-1 system. As I have stated before, it will be interesting to see how this system will work against a defensive team and we have yet to see it in this series.  

Game 3 did not disappoint.

The Lightning did employ the system, but the Bruins were playing a short chip and chase rather than firing the puck to the back of the Tampa Bay zone and used their speed and fore checking to apply pressure and took away the Lightning's time and space.

That's not to say that the Lightning didn't have their chances. Tim Thomas played very well in the game and stopped all 31 shots he faced.

Defensively, both teams played better than the last game, but Boston's short chip and chase game and Tim Thomas were the differences in this game.

The Game

First Period

It didn't take long for the Bruins to strike. David Krejci scored just 1:09 of play.

Johnny Boychuk pinched in to keep a clearing puck from leaving the Lightning zone to find Milan Lucic in the back corner. Lucic then saw Krejci all alone in front of Dwayne Roloson.  

Krejci had all the time in the world and he used it to undress Roloson to backhand it in the open right side to put the B's up 1-0 on Boston's first shot on goal.

There was a tremendous hit by Marc-Andre Bergeron on David Krejci that was called as a Elbowing penalty and Tampa Bay's coach Guy Boucher was lived at the call as he felt it was a shoulder.

The replayed showed it was a North-South shoulder to head contact which is not an illegal hit, but the elbow followed through which gave it the appearance of the elbow being the point of contact.

Fortunately for the Lightning, nothing materialized from the power play. 

Second Period

No Scoring.

Third Period

Andrew Ference ripped a shot from the point and it seemed it was tipped by Tyler Seguin, and it trickled behind Roloson to slowly go pass the goal line and the Bruins got the insurance goal with 11:48 left of the game.

At this point of the season, they don't care who gets the score as long as it counts. 2-0 Bruins.

Boucher was yelling at his bench to attack the Bruins' zone, but it was too little, too late as the Bruins took Game 3 and the series lead.

The Good

The Bruins' Defensive style and smart fore checking prevented the Lightning to play their game as the time and space was clearly taken away from most of the game.  

This was a game of patience and the Bruins were not the first to blink.

The B's puck support was very good and they kept the Bolts outside to the most part giving Thomas a lot of easy looks. When the Bolts did get a chance to get some scoring chances, Thomas stopped them all and we have to include style points for the spin-o-rama he made after stopping Vincent Lecavalier

I asked the question in my previous article 2011 NHL Playoffs:  Bruins Need To Be Patient On Tampa Bay's 1-3-1 System, what if the opposing team has a smart, strong defense?

It seems the Bruins had the answer in Game Three.  The system negates the "Dump and Chase" so the Bruins did a "Chip and Chase" instead.  They dumped the puck only halfway into the attacking zone and used their size and speed to get to the puck and win a lot of battles.

Instead of a Bolt player gathering the puck from behind or near the net, they had to commit to try and head off the play and that opened up the zone for the Bruins to cycle the puck and keep it in the attacking zone much longer than they did in Game One.

The Bad

Nothing real bad here. There was some defensive breakdowns, but that's to be expected.

The Ugly

It was overall, a boring game, but to a Bruins fan, it was exciting.

My Take

The Bruins seemed to find some chink in the 1-3-1 system and they exploited it to earn a couple of goals.

The Bruins D also kept things tight to the most part and although there were many chances on Thomas, the Bruins' transition game was far better than the previous two.

Some say that if the Bruins can keep this up, this series can be over on Monday.  

As it stands, Game 4 will need to be decided first before any talk of a series ending.

If anything, I don't foresee any games' results from here on out.

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