Boston Bruins clobber Philadelphia Flyers 7-3: NHL Play-off Recap
David Krejci lit the lamp with two goals and also assisted twice, as the Boston Bruins used a three-goal burst in the middle period to take a 7-3 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers in
Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semi-final set at the Wells Fargo Centre on Saturday night.
Brad Marchand also netted two goals and had an assist while Nathan Horton scored a goal for Boston. Mark Recchi and Gregory Campbell both
also hit the net while Tim Thomas turned away 31 shots to earn the victory.
"Each game you have to do it again. What you've done in the past doesn't matter. The next game starts over," Thomas said about his team's good fortune to begin a play-off series on the road.
James van Riemsdyk and Mike Richards both found the back of the net for Philadelphia, which was unable to build on momentum from Tuesday's Game 7 home win over the Buffalo Sabres. Danny Briere
also added a goal and Brian Boucher was beaten for five goals on 23 shots before being pulled out of the net. Sergei Bobrovsky replaced him and gave up two goals on 10 shots in rest of the game.
"As a goaltender, I'm responsible for stopping the puck," Boucher said. "It's always a wake up call to come out. It seems to be one of the last things coaches can do, instead of yelling at
the guys or taking a timeout. That's the way it goes."
Krejci got the scoring of the game started just less than two minutes into the opening period, when he intercepted a long shot from Horton and moved around Boucher to knock the puck home.
Philadelphia pulled an equaliser 1-1 during a 4-on-4 situation with nine minutes left in the first period. The goal came when Ville Leino threw a pass at the blue line on the left wing for
Braydon Coburn, who swept it to the front, where Briere controlled the bouncing puck, turned and blasted it past Thomas.
Bruins went on top with a 2-1 advantage with less than a minute to play in the opening stanza, when Boucher failed to glove Horton's second-chance rebound.
Boston took two-goal edge, 3-1, about 2 ½ minutes into the second period, when Recchi followed up his own rebound in the right circle and fired it through Boucher's pads.
Flyers then killed off two straight penalties, but were unable to capitalise on two consecutive power-play opportunities. Krejci then struck again for Boston’s three-goal edge, 4-1, with
about 4 ½ left in the second period, when he deflected an Adam McQuaid’s shot out of the air and into the net.
Marchand then pushed Bruins lead to 5-1 with less than three minutes remaining and Boucher was benched after this goal. But van Riemsdyk got the goal back, 5-2, just 16 seconds later when
he snapped a shot into the net from the left circle.
After wasting a brief two-man advantage on the back end midway through the final session, Philadelphia made it two-goal game, 5-3, on a one-man advantage just less than seven minutes to play,
when Richards lifted a shot from the slot.
The Bruins recovered their three-goal advantage, 6-3, with five minutes remaining in the third period. The goal came during turnover in front of Bobrovsky, when Patrice Bergeron tipped the
puck ahead and Marchand jammed it in the proceeds from the right side.
Campbell finally capped the scoring at 7-3 on a deflection from a Krejci pass with over two minutes left in the game.
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