Any goal by Bruins center Marc Savard would have sent Saturday’s crowd at TD Garden into a frenzy. A redirect to start off the first period, an insurance tally in the second &- any indication that Savard was already able to contribute to the Bruins’ offense in his first game back from a concussion would have been more than welcome.
But the overtime game-winner? A near-perfect slap shot to give the Bruins a 1-0 series lead over the Flyers?
“I guess you can’t script it any better,” Savard said. “When [defenseman Dennis Wideman] pinched, he kept it alive, and I just said, “As soon as this thing lands, I’m shooting it.’ And it went in.”
Savard had not played a game since March 7, when he was injured in a collision with Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke. He took short shifts yesterday, only logging about 15 minutes on the ice but looked sharper and sharper as the game went on, ending up a +1 with two shots.
Flyers goalie Brian Boucher had put up a .940 save percentage and a 1.59 goals-against average against the New Jersey Devils in the previous round. But the Bruins battered him with 15 shots in the first period, and thanks to good positioning in front of the net by Bruins forwards Steve Begin and Patrice Bergeron, they had a 2-0 lead after the first.
Begin’s goal came just 2:39 into the game, as he knocked home a Mark Recchi rebound from the front of the net. Ten minutes later, Wideman fired a rocket of a slap shot on net, and the rebound bounced to Bergeron, who was able to backhand it over a diving Boucher.
“I think our net-front presence was pretty good,” Bergeron said. “Getting those shots from the point, our D did a pretty good job getting the puck through, and us forwards, I thought we did a good job to get the loose pucks and put them up high.”
The Bruins seemed to stun the Flyers with their intensity in the first period, taking advantage of sloppy plays by Philadelphia in the neutral zone and controlling play in the offensive zone for much of the frame. But early in the second, the Flyers killed an interference penalty to Mike Richards with little trouble, and got a goal from defenseman Ryan Parent shortly afterward to cut the lead to 2-1.
Bruins forward Miroslav Satan, the hero of Games 4 and 6 against the Buffalo Sabres in the first round, answered four minutes later on the power play. Like Bergeron’s goal, it was the result of a shot by a defenseman, Johnny Boychuk, whose rebound came straight to Satan in the high slot for a one-timer.
Throughout the previous series, the Bruins’ penalty kill had been a perfect 19-for-19. Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger wrecked that 100-percent success rate Saturday with a power-play goal, his third of the postseason, at 15:48 of the second period.
Boston forward David Krejci brought the lead to 4-2 at 7:25 of the third. Controlling a rebound just above the crease, Krejci maneuvered across the space in front of the net, faked a shot that got Boucher to dive forward on his stomach, and flipped the puck over him for his fourth goal of the playoffs.
With under 10 minutes left in the third, the Bruins appeared to be comfortable with their lead. But then Richards struck with a power-play goal, and Flyers forward Daniel Briere tied it up with less than four minutes left to play. Though both Wideman and Bruins defenseman Matt Hunwick stood in his way, Briere pushed the puck through the defensive pair, got a shot off on Rask and knocked in his own rebound for the tying goal.
Fortunately, the intensity that had faded from the Bruins’ play in the third period was back when they took the ice in overtime. Krejci’s line spent almost two minutes in the Flyers’ end, firing shot after shot on net, and although they couldn’t beat Boucher then, that shift set the tone for the rest of the period.
“We were staying pretty patient and staying confident that we could do it,” Bergeron said. “We had a lot of chances, and sometimes it can hurt you when you don’t score, but we were staying pretty positive and confident that we could get it done.”
And in the end, it was Savard, picking up a loose puck that Wideman had held in the zone and firing a slap shot over Boucher’s shoulder, who got it done.
“Any time a guy steps into your lineup and hasn’t played in two months and scores an overtime winner, you’ve got to take it with a smile,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien. “He had a lane and a penalty had been called against [the Flyers], and he just threw it at the net &- a great shot and a great way to finish.”
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