2011 Stanley Cup Finals: Canucks Take Series to Boston 2-0 Early in OT

The Boston Bruins were looking to take home-ice advantage after losing Game 1 on a heartbreaking goal by Raffi Torres with 18.5 seconds left of the game.

The Vancouver Canucks looked to take a mini-stranglehold in the series and were eyeing the Stanley Cup with three more wins.

The scoring promised to be tight, and so far, it has not disappointed.

The Game

First Period

Scoring opened by the very person that, in many eyes, should have been suspended after biting Patrice Bergeron on the finger in Game 1.

Bruins Captain Zdeno Chara was called on the interference call and the Bruins were a man short with about 12 seconds left, Alex Burrows made a shot at the net and it just got in on the short side on Thomas as it hit him and squeezed in on the right side to give the Canucks the 1-0 lead.

Second Period

The Bruins were applying better pressure and it paid off.

The game was knotted up by Milan Lucic after a shot was blocked and Lucic out-muscled Christian Ehrhoff to pop the puck under Canucks netminder Roberto Luongo's right pad.

The Bruins got ahead on a power play goal...yes...a power play goal.  Chara ripped one at the net and it deflected off Mark Recchi's skate to go up and in past Luongo's left side.  So both goals by British Columbians.  2-0.

Third Period

Just past the halfway mark, the Canucks got the game knotted up by Daniel Sedin.  One of the few times that he was given space, Burrows made a quick pass on a rebound to Sedin and caught Thomas out of position and put it just above his right pad.  The goal forced overtime.

Later in the period, Maxim Lapierre was seen taunting Bergeron holding his fingers in front of his mouth, an invite to bite him.  It was a classless act by a classless player in my opinion.

Extra Fun

It didn't take long to solve this one.

Andrew Ference cleared the puck out of the zone, but Daniel Sedin got it to Burrows, who went streaking in to make the shot.  Thomas made the stop, but was way out of his net and he made incidental contact with Burrows, and that put Thomas completely away from the net.  Chara was on Burrows, but Burrows had too much momentum and made the wrap around to end the game.

The Good

Boston got a power-play goal.

For most of the game, the Bruins did play well, but it was two mistakes that the Canucks capitalized on.  The Bruins can, at the very least take note that both games were not completely out of reach and could have easily gone the other way.

The Canucks applied pressure at the right times and have controlled the play in numerous occasions just as the Bruins have.  In the Canucks' case, they were able to capitalize on their play and the Bruins could not.

The Bad

Turnovers.  The Bruins allowed the Canucks numerous turnovers and it was the defence and Thomas that kept the game within reach.

Maxim Lapierre.  His antic at Bergeron has no place at this level of play in the postseason.  Bergeron did not go on and on about it and he accepted the league's decision on the incident.  Suspendable?  Absolutely not.  Tacky?  Absolutely.

Bruins luck.  At this point, they need the Blarney Stone and Four-Leaf Clovers to counter the luck that they have had in these finals to date.

Canucks hitting.  It seems that when the Canucks are hitting Bruins players, it is the Canuck players that are getting hurt.

Raffi Torres seemed to ding himself well. Kevin Bieksa cross checked Peverley who, in turn, gave Bieksa a tap on the leg which seemed to have hit a sweet spot as he went down like he got shot.

Ryan Kesler was banged into the boards by Johnny Boychuk, and he was slow to get up and didn't seem to be as effective.

My Take

Great game overall.  Both teams had their moments, both good and bad.

In my opinion, Alex Burrows should have not been playing in this game.  Not because I am a Bruins fan, or that three goals were in part or directly made by Burrows, but because he clearly bit a player in a scrum.  There was precedent for such an act when Jarkko Ruutu bit Andrew Peters back in 2009.

Although the league stated there was no conclusive evidence of Burrows biting Bergeron, the replay showed otherwise with Burrows visibly biting down on Bergeron's finger. Even with a visible mark on his finger, it wasn't enough to sway the inconsistent NHL disciplinarians.

The Canucks played well and jumped on the opportunities that were given to them.  That's playoff hockey and any team that's given the same opportunities and do not take them, do not deserve to win the Cup.

The Bruins doesn't need to step it up, they need to keep it together.  Making mistakes is one thing, but to make them at the most worst possible times are inexcusable.  

Two of the three goals that Vancouver earned were off turnovers Saturday and if the Bruins have any hope of getting back into this series, they need to give Thomas a hand.

Thomas needs to know when to step out of the crease.  His overly aggressive style works to a degree, but to play Burrows when he had the jump on Chara was not the brightest moment of his career and not the right time to do it.  There have been a few times that the B's defense bailed Thomas out in this game.

So we are now heading to Boston and, for the Bruins sake, they need to remember that they were also down 2-0 going into Boston against the Montreal Canadiens.  A team that seemingly had their number.

Bruins Coach Claude Julien will need to figure out what they need to do in order to take the series back to Vancouver.

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