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| The Bruins celebrate after Nathan Horton's overtime goal gives Boston a 4-3 victory in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Wednesday night. |
In an epic playoff battle that will live on in team folklore forever, the Boston Bruins defeated the resilient Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in overtime Wednesday night to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Once again, Nathan Horton played the hero, scoring his second monumental goal of the playoffs less than six minutes into the extra frame to eliminate the hated Habs and send the Bruins into the second round of the playoffs.
"I don't remember too much," admitted Horton of his game-winning goal. "I remember [Lucic] coming up with the puck and I just tried to get open, I tried putting the puck towards the net. Luckily it got deflected off someone and it went straight in. That's all I remember.
"It was pretty special; again, it doesn't get any better."
Not only does the win earn the Bruins their first ever series victory after trailing 0-2 (previously 0-26), it represents a colossal moral victory for a franchise plagued by numerous epic failures in recent years. After Chris Kelly scored a pivotal third period goal to break a long standing tie and give the Bruins a 3-2 lead, it looked as if Boston was poised to hang onto the victory.
However, a questionable high sticking call on Patrice Bergeron with just under three minutes remaining in regulation gave Montreal one last chance to tie the game. Almost on cue, the vaunted Canadiens power-play delivered when P.K. Subban blasted a wicked one-timer past Thomas to tie the game 3-3 and send it to overtime.
Once Subban's blast eluded Thomas, Bruins Nation couldn't help but feel as if they'd been down this road before. We instantly had visions of 2008, when the 8th seeded Bruins pushed the top-seeded Canadiens to the brink, only to lose Game 7 in a laugher. We flashed back to 2009, when the top-seeded Bruins lost Game 7 in overtime on home ice to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. And, of course, we couldn't run from the memories of 2010's epic collapse at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers no matter how hard we tried.
For the past three seasons, when the going got tough for the Bruins, we were conditioned to expect failure.
Wednesday night seemed like the next ugly chapter in the same old book.
Not only did the Bruins blow a late third period lead, they were now in danger of losing in overtime. Montreal seized the momentum. In overtime it seemed as if we were waiting for Montreal to break our hearts. They were dictating the play, attacking the Bruins zone with unrelenting rushes up ice, peppering Thomas with shot after shot.
It seemed like simply a matter of time.
Not so.
Unlike their predecessors, the 2011 Bruins stepped up and found a way to get it done under the most pressure packed situation imaginable. They showed heart, character and passion.
They delivered.
"I think we showed a lot of character," said Bergeron, the team's assistant captain and best two-way forward. "Like I said, we had to put ourselves in a little bubble and [not] think about the pressure and what people are saying around us. I think we did a great job with that and stayed resilient all game and all series, and found a way."
Tim Thomas was once again spectacular in goal, stopping 34 of 37 shots, including several monumental saves late in the game and in overtime.
Now the Black and Gold will face the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals with a chance to enact unparalleled revenge on the team that knocked them out of the second round last season after leading the series 3-0.
"I'm not going to lie, it's a good opportunity for us to hopefully exorcise some demons," said defenseman Andrew Ference, who had a spectacular series against the Habs. "There's new guys on this team. This is a fresh start for us. We learned lessons from last year, no doubt about it. There's guys that are still on the team and we're not afraid to talk about those lesson... so we've got a chance to try to make things a little bit better this year."
The Bruins will get their first crack at revenge Saturday afternoon when the series kicks off in Philadelphia for Game 1. The second seeded Flyers will possess home-ice advantage over the third seeded Bruins.
In the end, the history books will show that Montreal pushed Boston to the absolute brink in the 2011 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. However, unlike in years past, the Bruins found a way to come out on top instead of folding under the enormous pressure of playoff hockey.
"We found a way to win," concluded Bergeron. "Now we can just think about the second round."
Congratulations, Bruins fans.
The team you've been waiting on for years may have finally arrived.
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