B's Downgrade 'Canes to Tropical Storm

By Matt Ingram
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff


There were a few major stories that play out through game 1; loose pucks, turnovers and goaltending. Each played a vital role in the Bruins 4-1 victory over the 'Canes.

Boston nabbed a 1-0 lead just 1:34 in when Michael Ryder chased down a loose puck behind the Carolina net and passed it to Aaron Ward at the point. Ward, a former Hurricane, shot it toward Carolina goalie Cam Ward, and David Krejci tipped it home.

Throughout the rest of the 1st period the B's lacked the urgency you need in a playoff game. It finally bit them in the seat of their pants when Mark Stuart turned the puck over at the 'Canes blue line creating a 3 on 2 going towards the Bruins' zone. Ryan Bayda carried the puck over the blue line, then dropped it to Jussi Jokinen who, with 1:10 left in the period unleashed a slap shot that snuck between Thomas’ pads. An instant later, Bayda steamrolled Thomas, earning a visit to the penalty box for goalie interference. Carolina had seemingly taken control of the game after Jokinen tied it at 1.

Boston took the reins back and the lead at 7:21 into the second when Milan Lucic tipped a Phil Kessel shot, setting up a room service rebound for Mark Savard. He cleaned up the loose puck for his first goal of the night.

Then at 12:41, Ryder stole a Tuomo Ruutu pass in the neutral zone and broke in on a 2-on-1 with Blake Wheeler. Ryder, who is on fire in the playoffs, chose to keep it and whistled a wrist shot over the left shoulder of Ward.

The latter part of the second period and the beginning of the third period became a flurry of turnovers. The Bruins coughed up the puck multiple times causing Tim Thomas to show why he is a Vezina Trophy finalist. “Realizing that goal was a little ugly, I wanted to do everything I could to save everything else to redeem myself,” Thomas said. He did with two phenomenal game saving saves. The first was a kick save on a Ryan Bayda tip at the end of the second period. The second was with a pad save on an Eric Staal backdoor play early in the third. Thomas continued his stellar goal play the remainder of the game finishing with 26 saves.

Sloppy played led to the final Bruins goal. Lucic stole the puck at center ice he dropped it for Kessel, which got stolen by Matt Cullen. Cullen turned it over to Savard, then tipped it up to Kessel, who brought it into Carolin's end, Savard took a drop pass from Kessel and beat Ward, who gave little effort to protect the net to ending the scoring for the evening.

The Bruins created their goals from fore checking and great center ice transitions into the offensive zone, but if the B's continue to turn the puck over to the 'Canes, Thomas won't be able to stop them all.

Celtics in for a Game 7 screamer

By Brendan Hall
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Voicemail from one of my college roommmates, a diehard Lakers fan, after the Celtics lost Game 6 to the Hawks: "Hey, HEY hey, where you watching Game 7 homey? Where you watching? Ahhhh-hahahaha!"

Text from said former roommate: "Where you watching Game 7?"

Stupor-induced cat-call from across the bar by another old UMass buddy, Brookline resident and San Diego transplant, Vaughn: "Good one, Red. Lakers, baby. LAY-kers."

Everyone seems to be enjoying this seven-game, first-round, modern-day Othello except us Celtics fans. For the fourth time in six games, Game 6 went into extra frames -- this time three overtimes -- before the Chicago Bulls snuck away with a 128-127 victory, before a raucous United Center crowd and a plethora of half-nervous/half-angry Boston faithful watching from big screens all over the 617 area code.

Unlike that Hawks series last year, where you knew the Big Three were going to come out of the gates steaming mad and take control form the get-go, I feel like the ball is in Chicago's court. The Bulls could totally take this Game 7 by double-digits, and the viewing public would no longer be shocked. The Bulls have been shocking the establishment for the past two games, and now they've got nothing to lose in this final act of the series.

Should KG give it a go? I'm not going to cling to my crazy theory from Game 5, but at this point I'll take a wounded Tony Battie. Heck, I'll take Vitaly Potapenko, Eric Montross, Stojko Vrankovic, anybody at this point. The C's starting rotation needs some help, in the most desperate way.

That's all I got for now. More to come this afternoon.