Playoff Post-Game: vs. Boston – Game 3

GAME SUMMARY: BRUINS 4 – CANADIENS 2

The anticipation for this game was off the charts amongst the Habs’ faithful. Too bad the players themselves didn’t see it the same way.

It didn’t take too long for the air to be sucked out of the Bell Centre by the Bruins, as David Krecji scored at the 3:11 mark of the first period, with assist going to Patrice Bergeron and Dennis Seidenberg. The whole play was the result of Jaroslav Spacek turtling on a hit by Bergeron, followed by a weak play on the puck by Roman Hamrlik on the weak side, leaving Carey Price out to dry.

Then, late in the first, on another weak defensive effort by Jaroslav Spacek, Nathan Horton banked one in off of Carey Price, who had slid a little too far out of his net. The goal came with 5:22 left in the period, on passes from Zdeno Chara and Andrew McQuaid.

Then, again early in the 2nd period, Rich Peverley potted the eventual game winning goal, with a helper going to marc Recchi. The whole play developed when Carey Price attempted to pass the puck to Michael Cammalleri, but instead hit Recchi’s skate. The goal came at the 2:02 mark.

The Canadiens tried to make a game of it, when Andrei Kostitsyn scored a beauty just five minutes later. After picking the puck off a drop pass from Cammalleri, AK46 undressed Bruins’ defenseman Zdeno Chara, who spun around like a top, then slipped it past Tim Thomas through the five hole. Roman Hamrlik also got an assist on the play.

With another goal early in the third period, the Canadiens got themselves within one. At the 4:08 mark, Tomas Plekanec did a spin-o-rama to the left of Thomas, and again slipped the puck between his pads. Cammalleri and P.K. Subban with the helpers.

Unfortunately, that’s as close as they got. Although they dominated play for the entire period, Chris Kelly scored into an empty net with 22 ticks left on the clock.

GAME POINTS

• The Canadiens looked overwhelmed by their own crowd, and had no legs for the first two periods.
• Jaroslav Spacek’s competitive level came into question with his weak play, as well as his health.
• After taking a stupid penalty to end the first period, Benoit Pouliot only saw two other shifts in the 2nd period before being glued to the Canadiens’ bench.
• The Habs were a miserable 44% on face-offs in this game. Scott Gomez and Tomas Plekanec were a combined 35.7% on draws in the offensive zone.

NEXT GAME: Thursday, April 21st, 2011 – 7:00 PM at the Bell Centre.