Written 5/2/14
After 9 long days, the Montreal Canadiens were back on the ice against their rivals, the Boston Bruins.
After squandering a 2-0 lead in the 3rd, they exchanged goals with the B’s eventually bringing them to Double OT where PK Subban sniped home a game winner on the Powerplay.
Opening the scoring on the same type of play, PK earned his stripes as he played possibly the best game of his career, with 5 hits, 3 blocked shots, 2 goals on 3 shots and an astonishing 33:00 TOI. The boos were loud and the crowd was mean. It had no harsh effect on Subban.
Known as a cocky player, he showed amazing confidence and poise, not losing his cool and playing his game.
The real highlight of the game was the goalie battle between Tuukka Rask and Carey Price, particularly the dominating performance put on by the Montreal backstop. Making 48 saves on 51 shots for a .924 save %, “Jesus Price” threw the team on his back and took control of what could only be described as a shooting gallery. Peppered with 14 shots in the 3rd and first Overtime, No saves were lucky. Every shot had a chance to go through and put Boston up large, but Carey wasn’t having any of it.
The home ice advantage that the Presidents trophy winners had, is no longer theirs. The Habs stole a huge game 1 and now look to win the 6th straight game in this postseason. Masked by a powerhouse effort in both nets, was the checking game both teams exhibited throughout the entire 5 periods. A total of 101 hits split evenly between the two shows the passion and hate each team has.
With an early am start on Saturday, only time will tell if both teams can exude the same amount of intensity as they did Thursday night. Fatigue may set in, players may be sore, but nothing compares to the chance of winning this series and even more the Stanley Cup.
