BRUINS TOP HABS TO COMPLETE SWEEP

The Boston Bruins won a playoff series for the first time since 1999 on Wednesday night, defeating the Montreal Canadiens by a 4-1 score to complete the first round sweep.  The Bruins spotted Montreal an early first period lead, but took over the game late in the period and never relinquished the momentum.   While the Bruins put to rest a decade’s worth of playoff frustration, the recent struggles of the NHL’s most storied franchise continued—Montreal has lost eight straight playoff games, and four of their last five playoff series.

Andrei Kostitsyn quickly brought a sold out Bell Centre crowd to their feet with his goal just :39 seconds into the game, assisted by Saku Koivu and Alexei Kovalev.  Montreal would hold a 1-0 lead until 17:27 when Boston’s Michael Ryder would even the contest with his unassisted breakaway goal.  The Bruins would quickly strike again as David Krejci scored at 19:25 of the first assisted by Ryder and Milan Lucic.  That quick reversal in fortunes seemed to embolden the Bruins and deflate the Canadiens, who trailed 2-1 at the break despite holding a 16-7 shots on goal advantage in the first period.

The first period was Montreal’s last best shot, and it was all Boston the rest of the way.  Phil Kessel gave the Bruins a 3-1 lead at 11:58 of the second period on his goal assisted by Patrice Bergeron.  Ryder would score his second of the game less than a minute later assisted by David Krejci and Dennis Wideman. After a dominating 2^nd period during which the Bruins held a 14-4 shots on goal advantage they coasted through the final twenty minutes to earn the 4-1 victory and win the series 4 games to none.

After the game, former Canadien Michael Ryder spoke about the series victory:

"Yeah, it's definitely a good feeling to beat your old team here in Montreal and make it the last one. I kind of actually forgot about what happened last year. I'm a Bruin now and it's a lot of fun."

Monstrous 6’9” Bruins captain Zdeno Chara suggested in his postgame comments that the late first period goals were the turning point in the game:

"That's always the goal, to be tied or be ahead after the first, especially on the road. That puts a lot of pressure on the home team and you know that going into the second period that it's always tougher for them because they know they're one goal behind and they have to press even more, so you just to be patient and play smart."

The Bruins now await their second round opponent, while Montreal will no doubt have a lot of work to do over the summer.  The Canadiens ended their 100^th season with eight straight victories which, along with their recent playoff struggles, strongly suggests that major changes may take place in hopes to restore the team to the level of the NHL’ elite.