Boston Bruins forces Game 7 decider after defeating Vancouver Canucks 5-2 in Game 6 –NHL Playoffs Update
As expected earlier, home-ice advantage turned out to be the game decider once again as all six games of the 2011 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Finals’ series went in favour of the home team. Boston Bruins defeated Vancouver Canucks, 5-2, to level
the series and force a Game 7 decider at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, on Monday, June 13th.
Two nights earlier, Vancouver Canucks shutout Boston 1-0 at its home stadium at the Rogers Arena and took a commanding lead in the Stanley Cup Finals’ series.
Bruins bounced back in Game 6 and overpowered Canucks by outscoring it to take the series back to Vancouver.
"We've created ourselves another opportunity, and it's up to us to take advantage of it", said Bruins’ coach, Claude Julien, whose team will be looking for the first away win of the series in Game 7. "But we've got to be hungrier than we have been the last
three times in Vancouver".
Boston Bruins took a dominating lead by midway through the first period which put Vancouver on a tough path to recovery.
Brad Marchand scored his ninth goal of the postseason, 5:31 into the first period, and was followed by Milan Lucic 35 seconds later for his fifth.
Andrew Ference extended the lead to 3-0 nearly 3 minutes later while taking advantage of Vancouver’s second penalty of the period, Michael Ryder finalised the first 20 minutes by scoring his eighth of the playoffs a minute later.
Boston gave three consecutive penalties during the second period which it managed to kill off as both teams remained scoreless for the second 20 minutes.
Henrik Sedin quickly put Vancouver back into the matchup as he scored Canucks’ first, 22 seconds into the final period on a Bruins penalty which was carried over from the second period when Patrice Bergeron was sent out at the 19:08 mark.
David Krejci secured the match even further with a power-play goal of his own when Andrew Alberts was booked for checking Tyler Seguin.
Maxim Lapierre, who scored the game winning shot in Game 5, gave Canucks its second goal, with less than three minutes remaining and having a deficit of 5-2, there was no reason to celebrate since it was clear that loss was inevitable.
"I'm proud of the guys", said Mark Recchi, who had three assists. "We had our backs to the wall, we've been resilient all year, and we came out and had a great first period and did what we had to do tonight, and it comes down to Game 7. It's one game now".
Luongo was pulled out early for the second time in the first period for giving up three straight goals.
Vancouver had a chance to take home the cup but Bruins had a plan that was bound to work.
The final Game 7 is set to be played on Wednesday, June 15th, at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, where both Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins are set to fight for the precious Stanley Cup.
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