Bruins take commanding 3 game lead over Habs

The Bruins now have a commanding 3-0 series lead after beating the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 on the road. The Bruins will look to complete the series sweep in Game 4 on Wednesday night.

The Canadiens seemed to have an extra jump in their step out of the gate as they tried to set the tone early in the game. The Habs were flying all over the ice early in the first period, pressuring the puck and finishing their checks. The Habs out-hit the Bruins 21-7 in the opening period, however the Habs clearly would not be able to sustain this frantic pace for 60 minutes.

Montreal got on the board first 11:52 into the game when Marc Savard coughed up the puck in the defensive zone springing an odd man rush for the Habs. Christoper Higgins fired a wrister from the left circle that beat Tim Thomas for the game's first goal to give the Canadiens a lead for the first time during this series.

The Bruins tied it up when Dennis Wideman picked off a clearing attempt and chipped the puck towards the goal that was redirected past Carey Price by Phil Kessel with 1:25 left in the first period.

Shawn Thornton made it 2-1 3:36 into the second period when Byron Bitz found Thornton in the slot.

The Canadiens got back to even just 1:40 later when Yannick Weber's shot off a faceoff win by Glen Metropolit beat Tim Thomas.

The Bruins got the lead back with 2:39 left in the second when former Hab Michael Ryder picked up a rebound at the left circle from Dennis Wideman's shot and fired a wrister into a virtually empty net.

Chuck Kobasew sealed the win for the B's when he beat Saku Koivu in foot race and put the puck into the empty net with 37 seconds left in the game.

Notes:

- All I have been hearing all week long from Montreal is how classy Habs fans are. Yeah, booing the U.S. National Anthem is a real classy move guys. I hate fans on both sides that try to make it U.S. versus Canada. Morons, there are players from both countries on both teams. Habs fans will surely point to isolated incidents involving a handful of Bruins fans but this incident involved the majority of the 20,000+ Habs fans in attendance.

- Tim Thomas made 23 saves tonight

- The Habs outhit the Bruins 33-15 tonight

- The Bruins need to take better care of the puck. They had 18 giveaways tonight.

- Byron Bitz, who was playing his first career playoff game, got his first NHL playoff point with an assist on Shawn Thornton's goal. Shawn Thornton also got his first career post season point on the play.

- On Wednesday night, the Bruins will try to sweep a playoff series for the first time since 1992 when they finished off the Montreal Canadiens in 4 games in the Adams Division Finals.

- The Habs might want to take a look at this site.

Stat of the Night: Steve Montador blocked 9 shots