Carey Price turned aside all 31 shots he faced and Brian Gionta found the back of the net twice as the Montreal Canadiens shutout the Bruins 2-0 to take Game 1 on Thursday night at TD Garden.
Brian Gionta look advantage of a Bruins defensive zone turnover to net the game's first goal 2:44 into the game. Tomas Kaberle's pass attempt from behind the goal line up the boards to Dennis Seidenberg ended up getting past the intended recipient and unto the stick blade of Scott Gomez. Gomez fed a centering pass to a wide-open Gionta on the door step, before depositing the puck past a hung out to dry Tim Thomas.
The Habs extended their lead to 3-0 with 3:18 to play in the third period on another defensive zone miscue, followed by a feed by Scott Gomez, and a goal by Brian Gionta. Milan Lucic got his pocket picked by Gomez as he tried to carry the puck out of the defensive zone. Gomez left a backhand drop pass for Gionta. Gionta skated to the right circle and ripped a shot that got a piece of Thomas' blocker before finding the back the back of the net for his second goal of the game.
Notes:
- Carey Price did a great job of staying square to the puck and making saves, but to be honest the 31-20 shot advantage for the Bruins is misleading. Price was not challenged enough by the Bruins. The Bruins were not getting traffic in front and allowed Price to see the puck well and steer rebounds safely aside.
- Carey Price will probably need a new jersey for Game 2, because there has to be a hole in the CH crest from all the shots that the Bruins shot directly at the Habs goaltender's chest.
- Zdeno Chara needs to be smarter. The Bruins cannot have their captain going to the box for a dumb selfish penalty late in the game with his team down 2-0.
- The Bruins went 0-3 on the power play. To steal a term from Kevin Miller, the Bruins looked like poop soup with the man advantage.
- Brad Marchand had a game-high 6 shots including several quality scoring chances, but could not finish tonight.
- I wonder if we will see Tyler Seguin in this series. Michael Ryder was a non-factor tonight. It might not hurt to see what the kid can do and add some speed up front.
- The Bruins played a decent possession game for the most part tonight, but the grittiness and sense of urgency did not seem to be there tonight.
- According to reports, Claude Julien came off as "crusty" and "ornery"" during the post game press conference.
- The B's need to win on Saturday night. They cannot go up to Montreal down 2-0.
Quotes from the Room:
"Obviously [Carey] Price is a great goalie, and he can’t see the puck like that. We’ve got to make sure we get in front of him and get some traffic. It doesn’t have to be the prettiest goal, we just need to put the puck in."
Patrice Bergeron
"They were trying. I think they were boxing us out of his net pretty good. I thought our chances were good, I thought our shots were good, but we didn’t have enough traffic. So I don’t think our shots were too much from the outside. We had some chances from the slot, it’s just he could see the puck."
Patrice Bergeron on Montreal's effort to keep the Bruins out of the slot
"Who said it was frustrating? We just didn’t score a goal. I think we did a lot of good things. We just couldn’t score a goal."
Zdeno Chara when asked about how frustrating this game was
"We got caught a little lax…not lax in our D zone but we weren’t as composed as we wanted to with the puck. Therefore, we weren’t coming out clean. We gave them too many opportunities, so we have to clean some things up there, but like I said, Carey (Price) did a great job of bailing us out and keeping us in the lead right down to the end."
Montreal forward Brian Gionta on the Bruins scoring chances
"It’s a hockey game. It’s the first game of the series. It’s, you don’t want to lose the first game obviously. But you got to put it behind you and already start to get ready for Tuesday. Or actually, hopefully we’re ready for Saturday because that’s when we play."
Tim Thomas on how frustrating tonight's game was
"I thought that we were sitting back a little bit in the second period. I thought our guys did a really good job of rope-a-doping it a little bit. They [Bruins] are a good hockey team and when they grab the momentum like that they definitely ran with it. Our guys just rallied, blocked shots, and kept it simple. We were fortunate to keep the puck out of the net."
Montreal goalie Carey Price
"It is different in the playoffs. Things that happen in the regular season don’t necessarily happen in the playoffs because it costs a lot more. Teams are playing differently. We expected that type of game out of them and they definitely played physical but our guys didn’t back down."
Carey Price on the difference between the Bruins team that they saw in the regular season and the team they saw tonight
"Yeah, it is frustrating. You feel like you kind of let the team down. You had opportunities like that and you didn’t bury. You can say what if, but at the end of the day there is tomorrow and we have to be ready for that, focus on that and then be ready for the next game. We can’t hang our heads here, and can’t hold onto this. We have to let it go and be ready for the next game."
Brad Marchand on his missed scoring opportunities
"I tried to reverse it, and I reversed it a little too much. They put it right away, right to the back of the net. It’s a quick play. We just have to learn from that and it’s game one. So it’s a long series and we have to come out on top of them on Saturday night."
Tomas Kaberle on what went wrong that led to the Habs first goal