BRUINS RIP CANES IN EASTERN SEMIFINAL SERIES OPENER

Marc Savard scored twice, and goaltender Tim Thomas stopped 26 of 27 shots as the Boston Bruins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 in the opening game of their Eastern Conference semifinal series at the TD BankNorth Garden on Friday night.  It was Thomas’ eleventh consecutive victory in net dating back to the end of the regular season.

The Bruins wasted no time getting on the board, as David Krejci scored just 1:34 into the game assisted by Aaron Ward and Michael Ryder.  Carolina would answer before the end of the first period when Jussi Jokinen scored his fourth goal of the playoffs set up by Ryan Bayda and Joni Pitkanen to send the teams into the first intermission tied 1-1.  From that point on, it was all Boston starting with Marc Savard’s first goal of the game at 7:21 of the second period assisted by Phil Kessel and Milan Lucic.  Michael Ryder would score unassisted at 12:41 to stretch the Bruins’ lead to 3-1, and Savard would add another goal at 7:21 of the final period.  Phil Kessel got credit for the lone assist on Savard’s second goal, which produced the final 4-1 margin of victory.

After the game, Boston’s Aaron Ward commented on suggestions that his team might be ‘rusty’ after a layoff resulting from their first round sweep of Montreal and Carolina’s seven game war with New Jersey:

"When you are at this stage of the season, your athleticism should take over. You should never be rusty at this stage of the playoffs."

Winning goalie Tim Thomas said that it took the team very little time to regain top form:

"There was some rust in the first period. Not anything that was a game-changer, but we got better and better as the game went on and shook the rust off. After nine days off, one bad period is not a bad place to be."

Carolina has gone on to win the series the last four times they dropped the opening game.  Boston has been a huge headache for the team, however, and the Hurricanes have now lost five straight to the Bruins by a combined score of 22-7.  Carolina captain Rod Brind’amour observed that regardless of Boston’s statistical dominance of late his team has to move on and get ready for game 2:

"Whether we lost 10-0 or 4-1 it makes no difference. It's a loss, and we're going to have to regroup and do better next game."

Hurricanes forward Erik Staal emphasized the importance of maintaining confidence despite struggling against the Bruins this year:

"We've got to know that we can beat these guys. We've got to feel confident. It's a best-of-seven series for a reason. We can be better; we know that. We've got to ... forget about this one and look forward to Game 2."

Ironically, Carolina lost the opening game of their opening round series against the New Jersey Devils by an identical 4-1 score.  Game two will be back at Boston’s TD BankNorth Garden on Sunday evening before shifting to Raleigh, NC for games three and four beginning on Wednesday night.