David Krejci scored two more goals during his torrid postseason and the Bruins shut down the Penguins in the opening game of the Eastern Conference finals.
Nathan Horton added an insurance goal in the third period and Tuukka Rask stopped 29 shots for the Bruins, who silenced Sidney Crosby and the rest of the NHL’s top-scoring team. Pittsburgh came in averaging a league-high 4.27 goals in the playoffs but couldn’t solve Rask. The Penguins hit the post six times and seemed a little bit off following an eight-day break between rounds. (AP)
KEY MOMENT
The Penguins kicked off the first period with more energy than might have been expected after a week-long layoff but were not able to get a puck past Bruins’ G Tuukka Rask.
It would be the Bruins who would find a way to strike first at the 8:23 mark of the opening period. D Andrew Ference, playing his first game since Game 4 against Toronto more than two weeks ago, found RW Nathan Horton along the right-wing boards. Horton collected the pass and sent it to C David Krejci in the high slot, where he fired a slap shot that deflected off of D Paul Martin, who had gone down to block the shot in front of G Tomas Vokoun.
The puck ricocheted through Martin and between Vokoun’s legs. The Bruins carried their 1-0 lead into the third period. (Brian Metzer)
HIDDEN STAT
2: The number of game-winning-goals that LW Jussi Jokinen scored against the Bruins in his only other playoff series against them as a member of the Hurricanes back in 2009. Jokinen collected six points (three goals) in the 4-3 series victory that earned the Hurricanes the right to meet the Penguins in the Eastern Conference finals. (Brian Metzer)
NOTEWORTHY
-- This is Boston’s second trip to the conference final in three years. However, without a historic collapse against Philadelphia in 2010, it could have been three in the last four. The Flyers overcame a three-game deficit to become just the fourth-team in NHL history to do so and first since the Islanders did it to the Penguins in 1975. While Bruins coach Claude Julien is appreciative of another trip to the NHL’s final four, he’s not content. “We’re proud to be here, but we’re not done yet,“ said Julien. “Our attitude is that we’ve still got plenty of work to do here.”
-- Penguins C Joe Vitale, a St. Louis native, reported that his family and friends are all well after a tornado ripped through Missouri on Friday night.
-- D Zdeno Chara and C Patrice Bergeron were matched primarily against Sidney Crosby. The topic of who Chara would play against was debated throughout the week leading up to the start of the Eastern Conference finals. After some contemplation about separating Chara from usual D partner Dennis Seidenberg, Julien kept his shutdown duo on the same pairing.
-- It was the first time the Penguins had been shut out since Feb. 12, 2012 in a game against Toronto, a 96-game span.
-- The Penguins saw their eight-game postseason winning streak against the Bruins snapped. They had last lost to the Bruins in Game 2 of the 1991 Eastern Conference finals. The Penguins longest active postseason winning streak currently stands at seven games against Washington. They also saw their streak of nine consecutive postseason home games with three or more goals scored come to an end.
-- The Penguins successfully killed off all four Bruins’ power-plays. They have now killed off 24-of-26 (92.3 percent) power-plays on home ice and 39 of 43 (90.7 percent) overall and rank third overall in the NHL in the category.
-- With five shots in the game, C Evgeni Malkin ranks second in the league with 51 shots on goal. Malkin added two hits, but struggled in the faceoff circle where he won just 17 percent (one-of-six) of his draws.
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