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Bruins rip Canucks in Game 3

Jun 7, 2011 - 6:13 AM Boston, MA (Sports Network) - It was the first Stanley Cup Finals game in Boston in 21 years, and the Bruins made it a memorable one with an 8-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 3 at TD Garden.

The last time there was a Finals game in Boston -- May 24, 1990 -- Mark Messier and the Edmonton Oilers won their fifth Stanley Cup with a 4-1 win in Game 5.

Coming into Monday's action, Boston faced a 2-0 deficit after a pair of losses in Vancouver, but the Bruins exploded for four goals in the second period and Tim Thomas did the rest with a 40-save performance to get them back into the series.

"Well, what I can say to you in the playoffs, we've mentioned that throughout the whole playoffs since day one, whether you lose a game in overtime or you lose a game 10-0, it's only a loss, in the loss column," said Boston head coach Claude Julien. "So we won by a big score tonight, but it's only a win, and we're still down 2-1. That's the way I've approached it. That's the way I've seen it."

Mark Recchi had two goals, Michael Ryder had a goal and two assists while Andrew Ference, Daniel Paille, Brad Marchand and David Krejci each had a goal and an assist in the win.

Roberto Luongo, who gave up just two goals in the first two games, was tagged for all eight goals on 38 shots in this one. Jannik Hansen provided the only goal in the lopsided loss.

"In the playoffs, a loss is a loss," said Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault. "You lose in OT or you lose like we did tonight, it's a loss in the loss column. We're going to take tomorrow to analyze certain aspects of our game, then we're going to come here on Wednesday and we're going to get ready to play a good game."

Game 4 will take place on Wednesday night in Boston.

Whether Bruins forward Nathan Horton will take part in that game is unknown, as he took a scary hit at the 5:07 mark of the first period.

Skating through the neutral zone up the middle, Horton dished a pass over to his left. Just moments later, Canucks defenseman Aaron Rome stepped up and sent his left shoulder high into Horton, who immediately fell and smacked his head on the ice.

For several minutes Horton was tended to by team personnel, who immobilized his head and neck and eventually took him off on a stretcher. He was seen talking before being taken off the ice.

He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital and he had movement in his arms and legs. Horton will spend the night there and will undergo further testing.

Rome was given an interference major and game misconduct for the hit.

"Looking back at the hit, you say was it a dirty hit," said Julien. "I think what I would call it is it was a blindside hit that we've talked about taking out of the game. He made the pass. It was late. He came from the blindside. Whether it's through the motion of the hit, it appeared he left his feet a little bit.

"You know, again, that's my view on it. I'm not going to comment more than that. Say what I always say: let the league take care of it. We're trying to clean that out. Let's see where they go with that."

That hit, along with Alexandre Burrows' finger-biting incident in the first game, has led to a series with increasingly rough play.

Aside from Rome, three other Canucks and four Bruins were given a 10-minute misconduct, and all in the third period. The teams combined for 25 penalties and 125 penalty minutes in Monday's game.

After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, the Bruins needed just 11 seconds to take a 1-0 lead.

Off the opening faceoff, the Bruins got control of the puck in the Vancouver end after a Canucks defenseman broke his stick. From the mid-left boards, Rich Peverley dished the puck back to the point for Ference, who let loose with a wrister that deflected in front and went past Luongo.

"They fed off that [goal]," Canucks forward Daniel Sedin said. "They got going and were playing pretty good. We weren't sharp."

Skating on the power play thanks to a hooking call on Jeff Tambellini, the Bruins -- who came into the game just 6-for-70 on the man advantage in the playoffs and failed to score on a five-minute major in the first period -- took a 2-0 lead.

Effective puck movement saw Ference send the puck from the left point to the left boards, where Ryder skated it to the circle before firing a pass to the right side. From there, Recchi attempted to send it to the left for a one- timer by Peverley, but it hit off the stick of Vancouver's Ryan Kesler and went into the net at the 4:22 mark.

Boston got its third goal, a short-handed tally, thanks to an outstanding individual effort from Marchand. With the puck in the neutral zone, Marchand bounced it off the right boards and flew past Kesler. He caught up to the puck at the right circle, skated to the left side and fired it into the net past a sprawled-out Luongo at 11:30.

It was a 4-0 game with 4:13 to play in the second frame. Ryder snapped a quick shot on net from the slot and Luongo gave up a huge rebound to his right, where Krejci was to blast it home.

"We started scoring and the floodgates opened," Thomas said. "It was good to see the scoring spread around."

Boston sealed the win at the 11:38 mark of the third with another shorthanded goal. From the left circle, Paille snapped a wrister on the fly that trickled into the net.

Hansen scored two minutes later to get Vancouver on the board, but the Bruins turned the win into a rout with three goals over a 1:50 span. Recchi scored his second of the game at the 17:39 mark, Chris Kelly lit the lamp 27 seconds later, and Ryder capped the burst with 31 seconds to play during a power play.

The first period went scoreless despite Boston having the major and Vancouver also getting a power play.

"I really liked our first period," said Vigneault. "Obviously we had to kill off a five-minute penalty. We did a pretty good job. We had a couple of great scoring chances that, you know, I thought their goaltender made some real good saves on."

In all, the Canucks finished 0-for-8 on the power play in the game while Boston went 2-for-4.

Game Notes

This was the most lopsided loss in a Stanley Cup Finals game since June 6, 1996, when Colorado took an 8-1 win over Florida in Game 2. The Avalanche went on to sweep that series...The Bruins scored their final three goals on three consecutive shots...Boston defender Zdeno Chara had two assists...Kesler was minus-three while teammate Alexander Edler was minus-four.