Boston Bruins dominate Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 - NHL Play-off Recap
Zdeno Chara found the back of the net twice and had an assist, as the Boston Bruins used a two-goals burst in first and second period to knock-off Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 and took a 3-0 lead in this Eastern Conference semi-final series at the TD Garden on
Wednesday night.
David Krejci scored a goal and assisted twice while Nathan Horton also notched a goal and earned an assist for Boston, which had almost similar situation in last year's conference semi-final series after winning the first two games at home. However, they
blew a 3-0 lead by dropping the next three contests in Game 7.
Daniel Paille also hit the net and Tim Thomas finished the game with 37 saves to pick up the win.
Andrej Meszaros was the lone scorer for Philadelphia, which pulled their starting goalie for the fifth time in 10 play-off games.
Brian Boucher started in the net and was beaten for two goals in the first 63 seconds. He wound up giving up four goals on 20 shots before being pulled. Sergei Bobrovsky replaced him and turned away 7-of-8 shots.
Chara got Boston off to a good start and Krejci netted a second goal just 63 seconds later for a two-goal edge that they never relinquished.
The first goal came just 30 second into the opening period. Boucher blocked the Bruins’ initial attempt, but the puck wound up behind the net and as a quick work in the Flyers end, Bergeron sent a back-hand pass to the front where Chara jammed it into the
net for his first goal of the play-offs.
"Yeah, it's not the start that we envisioned and you know you want to get off to a good start and it didn't happen today," said Boucher.
Just about one minute later, a behind the back pass from Milan Lucic in the low right boards to the front saw Krejci firing a one-timer into the net for a 2-0 advantage. Thomas made 12 saves in the first period to keep the Flyers off the board.
"That was about as good a start as you could ask for, especially on home ice," said Thomas. "It doesn't always work out that way. Definitely helped. It certainly helped from my perspective in goal. That's for sure."
Paille then gave the Bruins a three-goal advantage, 3-0 with over six minutes left in the second period, as a transition play saw Greg Campbell send a crossing pass from the right to the left and Paille knocked it into the right corner of the net.
Just less than two minutes later, Horton drifted through the middle and over to the inside right circle and blasted a shot between Boucher’s legs for a 4-0 lead.
Meszaros got the Flyers on the board and spoiled Thomas’ shut-out bid with about three minutes left in the second, when he buried the puck home with a wrist shot from down low at the left side to make it a 4-1 game. It was his second goal of the play-off
series.
However, Thomas made 12 saves in the last period as Flyers failed to cut any further into the deficit.
Chara then struck again on a 5-on-3 power play to seal the win at 5-1 with 1:22 remaining in regulation, as he unleashed a one-timer from the top of the left circle that found its way to the net.
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