Canadiens crush Bruins, Capitals force decider

MONTREAL: The Montreal Canadiens eased to a 5-0 victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday to capture their Eastern Conference quarter-final series in the deciding seventh game.

The home team out-shot Boston 35-25 as the Habs' 20-year-old rookie sensation goaltender Carey Price picked up his second shutout of the playoffs to ensure Montreal emerged with a 4-3 series victory.

Maintaining their quest for a record 25th Stanley Cup, the conference top seeds were roared on to victory by a sell-out crowd of 21,273 at the Bell Centre.

The Bruins started well and out-shot Montreal 9-4 in the first 10 minutes but still found themselves a goal down after the Habs opened the scoring at 3.31 on a slapshot from defenseman Mike Komisarek that got past Boston goaltender Tim Thomas.

Montreal scored twice in the second period to put the contest beyond Boston's reach, the first on a shot by defenseman Mark Streit and the second on a powerplay as Andrei Kostitsyn took a pass from brother Sergei and slipped the puck past Thomas.

Gritty challenge

Andrei Kostitsyn made it 4-0 with his second goal of the game with just over two minutes remaining and the Canadiens completed the scoring when Sergei Kostitsyn netted eight seconds from the end of the contest.

Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau, who mixed up his player lines well to re-energise the team, admitted he was nervous before the game but had been expecting the Canadiens to respond to the eighth seed's gritty challenge.

"We wanted to play a tough game, a game that we were on the puck all the time, which we did all year, and take advantage of our speed," Carbonneau told reporters.

The Bruins had trailed 2-0 and 3-1 in the series before battling back to pull even with wins in Montreal and Boston to ensure the teams returned to Quebec for a decider.

Boston head coach Claude Julien, who coached Montreal from 2003-06, said his team had high expectations heading into the series despite losing all eight of their regular season encounters against the Canadiens.

"We never gave up. The work ethic was evident on everyone's part," he said.

Price showed again why he is rated so highly, staving off Boston's early pressure and making key saves in each period.

"Pricey kept us in the game for sure. He made a couple of big stops, allowed us to settle down and start finding our game," Montreal winger Christopher Higgins said.

Hopes still alive

In Philadelphia, Alexander Ovechkin scored two third period goals to keep the Washington Capitals' playoff hopes alive with a 4-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.

Ovechkin, the NHL's leading scorer in the regular season, had not scored in four games in the Eastern Conference first round series, but his two goals on Monday in Philadelphia allowed the Capitals to tie the best-of-seven series at 3-3.

The deciding Game 7 is on Tuesday in Washington.

"It does not matter if I score," Ovechkin told reporters. "If we win, I'm happy."

The Flyers had appeared on the brink of eliminating Washington when they jumped out to a 2-0 lead courtesy of a first period goal by Mike Richards and one in the second from Daniel Briere, both on the power play.

Washington, however, replied later in the second period with goals from Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin to tie the game before Ovechkin's third period brace.

Cristobal Huet made 33 saves for the Capitals, who staved off elimination for a second straight game after winning Game 5 in Washington by 3-2.

Agencies

(China Daily 04/23/2008 page22)