The Bruins were able to finish off a sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers with a 5-1 win in Game 4 to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1992.
Milan Lucic gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead with a power play goal (not a typo, Milan Lucic actually scored a playoff goal and it was actually on the power play) 12:02 into the game while Daniel Carcillo (cross-checking) looked on from the sin bin. David Krejci had the puck out near the top of the left circle before moving it down low to Nathan Horton along the goal line. Horton saw Lucic going to the net and sent a perfect pass to Lucic at the top of the crease for Looch's first goal of the postseason.
Kris Versteeg tied it up for Philadelphia with 6:38 remaining in the second period after breaking in 2-on-1 with Mike Richards.
Johnny Boychuk's slapper from the right point 2:42 into the third period put the B's back up on top at 2-1. The Flyers could not control the puck after a defensive zone face-off win and the puck squirted out to Boychuk at the point. Boychuk's drive beat Sergei Bobrovsky on the glove side to give the Bruins a one-goal edge early in the third period.
Milan Lucic's second goal of the game gave the Bruins a two-goal cushion with 4:57 left to play in the third period. Nathan Horton forced Matt Carle to cough up the puck in the neutral zone and sprung Lucic in on a breakway before ripping a shot from the slot that beat Bobrovsky 5-hole.
Brad Marchand added an empty-netter with 1:56 left in the game make it a 4-1 game and Daniel Paille tipped in another empty net goal with 25 seconds left to account for the 5-1 final score.
Notes:
- The Bruins will now face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Finals.
- Patrice Bergeron left the game in third period after taking a big open-ice hit from Clause Giroux. Bergeron, who has a history of concussion issues looked shaken up after the hit and went immediately to the dressing room. The Bruins did not provide an update on his condition after the game.
- Tim Thomas made 22 saves.
- I had Philly in 7 games. It feels good to be wrong.
- I have to admit, I was a little nervous when I noticed that Tomas Kaberle is sporting the Dave Lewis look. I thought that had to be bad mojo.
- Jeff Carter finished -4.
- Nathan Horton picked up helpers on both of Milan Lucic's goals.
- Shane Hnidy logged a game-low 2:37 and had 2 PIMs.
- For more on tonight's game and this series from a Flyers' fans perspective, check out Broad Street Hockey.
- To look ahead to the Lightning series, pop over to Raw Charge.
Quotes:
Tim Thomas when asked if this will put all the talk of last season to rest:
"I hope so. To be quite honest, as a player you hear all the talk about what happened last year and you have to ignore it to be able to do what we just did, winning this series. But to be honest I’m glad that it’s over, I’m glad that it’s done with. Because the longer that series would have went the more talk about last year. So I’m glad that is put behind us as a team, as an organization and the fans. I am glad the fans can put it behind them too. And I’ll say it, hopefully exorcised some demons."
Tim Thomas on if he is thinking ahead to the Tampa Bay series:
"We are going to have lots of time. Generally my rule is until midnight, but because it was an eight o-clock game I am going to give it until one before I starting thinking about Tampa."
Flyers Defenseman Sean O'Donnell when asked how much they missed Chris Pronger:
"Well it doesn’t really matter how much we missed him. I’m sure they missed Savard and I’m sure Pittsburgh missed [Sydney] Crosby and [Evgeni] Malkin. Everyone is dealing with injuries right now. We showed during the year that we are a good team when Chris wasn’t in the lineup. Everyone would like to have a healthy team but that wasn’t the case. We didn’t get it done."
Zdeno Chara on what this win means to Bruins fans:
"They deserve it. They’ve been waiting for quite a while and now they just can enjoy a few more games and another round."
Milan Lucic on his 2 goals:
"Feels good. It’s been kind of frustrating, the last twenty games, not being able to put the puck in the back of the net. But tonight I was able to get open, and when I got those opportunities, both great plays by [Nathan] Horton to set me up, and when I got the opportunities it was nice to step up and score big goals."
Milan Lucic on getting to rock "the jacket":
"Yeah, feels good. Last time I wore this jacket was a big win for us against the Devils when I got my 30th [goal]. This win, regardless of the two goals, this win is a huge win for our hockey club and our organization. I think it’s been since 1992, since the Bruins have made the third round here. The last three years, we’ve been looking for this eighth win in the playoffs, to get into the third round, and we were happy to get the job done tonight."
Johnny Boychuk describing his goal:
"The puck came back to me and it was kind of rolling and I just tried to put it on net, and it went in. That’s about it."
Johnny Boychuk on the mood in the room between the 2nd and 3rd period:
"Just calm more or less. And we were just talking amongst ourselves just to keep doing the same thing and we did and we finally got opportunities. And we buried."