Boston Bruins defeat Philadelphia Flyers 7-3 in semi-finals opening match – NHL Play-offs Update
The Boston Bruins came out strong against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, defeating them 7-3 in game one of the Eastern Conference semi-finals at the sold out Wells Fargo Centre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Boston repeated history when they took down Philadelphia in the opening game during the second round of the play-offs, but it is not as good as it sounds. The Bruins were ahead 3-0 in the series last year as well, but lost the next consecutive four games
in a historic come-back by the Flyers to take the series.
"I try not to think about what happened last year, but in the back of my mind, it's hard," Boston’s David Krejci said after picking up two goals and assists in the game. "But I try to stay focused for the game. My teammates helped me out."
Krejci scored his second goal of the post-season in the opening two minutes of the match-up. Philadelphia’s centre, Danny Briere fired off his seventh of the play-offs nearly nine minutes after Krejci to level up the match. Nathan Horton, who scored the
game winner in game seven against the Canadiens, made the tie-break to give them the lead with 36 seconds remaining.
Even though the Bruins remained 0-6 on the power-play opportunities, they still managed to outperform the Flyers in all respects. Mark Recchi, David Krejci and Brad Marchand all scored three consecutive goals to give Boston a dominating 5-1 lead with less
than three minutes remaining in the second. James van Riemsdyk scored nearly 16 seconds after Marchand to bring down the deficit within three.
Mike Richards took advantage of one of eight power-play opportunities to score when Marchand was booked for tripping. It was Richards’s first goal of the post-season which gave the crowd the signal of a come-back with less than seven minutes remaining. Marchand
and Gregory Campbell answered back in the next four minutes to wash away all hopes of recovering by Philadelphia and sealed the match.
Tim Thomas remained steadfast for the Bruins and made 31 of 34 saves, while the Philly’s changed their main goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky after he managed to block only eight of 10 but his replacement Brian Boucher was not any better, falling short on five shots
on 23 tries at the net.
Flyers’ coach Peter Laviolette did not blame his goalies, "Too many easy goals, too many easy plays," he said targeting the defensemen. "We weren't strong enough right in front of our goaltender."
Game two is scheduled for Monday in Philadelphia between the two teams. Boston not only hopes to keep their performance consistent, but also not to repeat history after putting them on the verge of eliminating in last year’s game three.
Tags: