Boston Bruins lead 2-0, over Philadelphia Flyers in Semi-Final Series – NHL Play-off Recap
The National Hockey League play-off semi-final series took a new turn on Monday, May 2, when the Boston Bruins gained a staggering 2-0 lead against the Eastern Conference’s Number One seed, the Philadelphia Flyers.
David Krejci scored the game-winner in over-time to defeat the Flyers 3-2, at the sold out Wells Fargo Centre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It was an intense match with both teams firing the puck at any chance they had. Philadelphia outshot the Bruins 54-41 throughout the match-up. NHL’s leading goalie, Tim Thomas blocked 52 out of 54 attempts, to record the highest number of saves this post-season and move above Jonathan Quick’s 51 saves performance in the quarter-finals.
Thomas, while talking about the third period in which Philadelphia outshot them 22-7, said, "By the third period, I was really starting to get into a rhythm which was a good thing because they were really getting off shots."
James van Riemsdyk opened the match on a high note when he scored his sixth goal of the post-season, within 30 seconds of the first period. He scored again mid-way through the period on Boston’s second penalty, when Gregory Campbell was booked for holding
After van Riemsdyk extended the home team's lead 2-0, the crowd went wild. Chris Kelly and Brad Marchand answered back for the Bruins and stunned the fiery crowd, when they scored to level the match within 1:15 seconds of each other.
Marchand, said, "We knew they would have a big start. We knew they were going to come out hard in the first period, we just wanted to weather the storm. It was great we were able to tie it up there. It was pretty bad there at one point. We did a great job of coming back and settled things down and got into the game."
Nobody thought that the goalies would lockdown the game after the first period. After a scoreless second and third period, over-time was forced in the match.
Fourteen minutes had passed in overtime without anyone scoring to take the decisive lead. David Krejci fired a shot from the right circle which looked to be in, but the side continued to play as they were unsure about the goal. After multiple reviews of the shot, Boston were declared the winner of game two, as Krejci’s shot had went in the back of the net.
A 2-0 deficit in the semi-finals and that to at your own hometown has made a comeback from the Flyers much harder, as the team has to play in front of a wild Bruins crowd.
Game three is scheduled for Wednesday, May 3, at the Bruins home arena. The match gives Boston the opportunity to put Philadelphia on the verge of elimination.
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