There was so much build up for last night’s game six that you really couldn’t escape it. It started with the stupid broad on the news in the morning not remembering Luongo’s name, dominance on sports radio all day long, NESN and Comcast Sportsnet competing for pre and post game viewers, and NBC having pregame on Versus but Boston running their own pregame on channel seven.
Well, enough of the pregame it was time to play some hockey. During warm-up Tim Thomas led his team onto the ice a fired a puck down the ice towards Luongo’s net. Here’s hoping he does that again on Wednesday night because it clearly made sure Luongo wasn’t on his game. Nathan Horton was there waiving the towel and rallying the troops as well.
As the game started you really had to feel uneasy as a Bruins fan. Vancouver, despite losing Mason Raymond just 20 seconds into the game, was rushing to the puck and really outplaying the Bruins. That lasted about five minutes. Marchand scored to start the avalanche of scoring that saw the Bruins score four goals in a shade over four minutes.
Lucic hit a wristshot that beat Luongo five hole and it trickled over the line for a quick 2-0 Bruins lead. Literally it was 35 seconds since Marchand’s goal. You hoped it was going to be one of those games like game three and four where the Bruins embarrass Luongo.
Well, about two minutes later the Bruins did what they couldn’t do in game five and scored a power play goal. Ference scored from the point and the announcer quickly says, “You gotta get him out of there.”
Coach heard him. Pulled Luongo from the game but that didn’t stop the Bruins. Ryder tipped one in and made it a 4-0 game.
Then the Bruins upset me a little as they seemed to let off the accelerator again. They seemed to be in cruise control. A scoreless second period was highlighted with Bergeron taking three of his four minute minors on the night.
The Canucks scored on the powerplay to start the third and all of a sudden, even with Tim Thomas in the net playing out of his mind, I was scared. Krejci got the Bruins a power play goal of their own to put it back to a four goal lead.
As chaos started to ensue towards the end of the game, the Canucks added one more but that was it. Even with a 6-3 player advantage for the final minute or so of the game, Thomas kept them out of the net and the Bruins held on for the 5-2 win.
So now it all comes down to tomorrow night in Vancouver. I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch. I kid of course but this will definitely be one of those pay for the whole seat and only use the edge type of game. Here’s hoping that Thornton fires up the players like he did before game six.
The Canucks already said they’re starting Luongo, so we have that in our favor…
