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Bruins jump on Canucks early, force Game 7

Jun 14, 2011 - 5:39 AM Boston, MA (Sports Network) - The 2010-11 hockey season will end on Wednesday, but whether the Stanley Cup will rest in Canada or the United States remains to be seen.

The Boston Bruins staved off elimination, using a four-goal barrage in the first period to take a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 6 of the Finals on Monday at TD Garden.

It was a must-win for the Bruins after a 1-0 loss in Vancouver on Friday. However, the home team again held serve to set up a Game 7 in Vancouver in a winner-take-all matchup.

"We needed to come out hard tonight and I thought our guys responded," said Boston head coach Claude Julien. "Now we have to make sure we don't get too comfortable and bring this energy to Vancouver and win it all."

The last Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals occurred in 2009, when the Penguins beat the Red Wings in Detroit for the franchise's third championship.

Thankfully for Vancouver, the game will take place in front of its home crowd at Rogers Arena, where the team has taken two 1-0 wins and a 3-2 overtime victory in the series.

Boston has been the scene of nightmares for the Canucks, as the Bruins have scored 17 goals compared to just three for Vancouver in the three meetings in Beantown.

Michael Ryder had a goal and an assist while Mark Recchi added three assists for the Bruins, who are looking for their sixth Stanley Cup and first since 1972. Tim Thomas stopped 36 shots in the win.

"We know it's going to be tough cause nothing has been easy for us up there," said Ryder. "But it's Game 7, if you can't get pumped up for that you don't deserve to be here."

Henrik Sedin and Maxim Lapierre each scored for the Canucks, who are hoping to win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history and bring the Cup home to Canada for the first time since the Montreal Canadiens won in 1993.

"They won and we're going back home in front of our fans for a one-game showdown to win the Cup," said Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault. "This game happened, there is nothing we can do about it now. We just have to put this game behind us, get ready for Wednesday and do this for the fans."

It was another tough game in Boston for Roberto Luongo, as he was pulled just 8:35 into the game after giving up three goals on eight shots. Luongo gave up four goals before being removed in Game 4, a 4-0 Canucks loss.

Cory Schneider came on in relief Monday and stopped 30-of-32 shots.

In his three games in Vancouver in the Cup Finals, Luongo has stopped 95-of-97 shots and posted two shutouts. He has been shelled for 15 goals on 66 shots in three games in Boston, however.

"There was not extra nerves or anything like that. I'm not going to make excuses," said Luongo. "I'm just going to move on right now. We have one game at home to win the Stanley Cup."

Also, the Canucks lost left wing Mason Raymond on the first shift of the game. He was helped off the ice after getting mixed up with Boston's Johnny Boychuk and crashing into the boards. He wasn't moving his legs as he was helped off the ice and the team later stated that he was taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

A four-goal barrage in the opening 20 minutes gave the Bruins a commanding lead.

The first goal of the game came at the 5:31 mark, as the puck was chipped into the Vancouver end off the right boards. Brad Marchand caught up to the disc behind the defense and snapped a quick shot from the right circle that beat Luongo high and inside.

Just 35 seconds later, Boston took advantage of a bad change by Vancouver. Rich Peverley gained the Canucks zone at the left side and skated through the middle before leaving a drop pass for Milan Lucic, who took the puck to the inside left circle before flinging the shot between Luongo's pads.

Boston got its next two goals in a 70-second span to make it a 4-0 game.

The first came on the power play at the 8:35 mark. After the Bruins won a right circle faceoff, they worked the puck back to the left point, where Andrew Ference let loose with a shot that went through a screen set up by Recchi.

That was it for Luongo, and Schneider came in.

However, the change in net didn't faze the Bruins, as they made it a 4-0 game when a weak clear around the boards led to Tomas Kaberle one-timing the puck from the left point. Ryder deflected it past Schneider.

Thomas made 11 stops in the first period, including a right toe stop on a Ryan Kesler wraparound attempt inside of five minutes, to keep Vancouver off the board.

It was a scoreless second period as Thomas made 11 saves in the second period, while Schneider stopped eight shots.

Vancouver had the better of the opportunities in the second 20 minutes, but was unable to get any past Thomas.

The Canucks rang a shot off the left post less than three minutes into the frame, and Thomas made a nice stop on a Christian Ehrhoff wrister from the left circle during a Vancouver power play with 8 1/2 minutes left in the frame.

On a power play that carried over from the second period, the Canucks got on the board when Sedin skated down the left wing and cut to the front before flinging a backhander past a sprawled-out Thomas 22 seconds in.

Jannik Hansen celebrated a goal several minutes later when he thought his one- timer from the right circle snuck inside the left post, but it banged squarely off the pipe and stayed out.

A bit later, the Bruins made it a 5-1 game on a 5-on-3 power play. Recchi passed from the low right side to the left, where David Krejci had an easy slam at the 6:59 mark.

Lapierre's one-timer from the inside left circle with 2:26 to play accounted for the final score.

"It's tremendous for the city and the organization," Recchi said of the win. "It's a great feeling. This is what we dream of."

Game Notes

This will be the 16th Game 7 in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Eastern Conference has won the past four...The home team has not won every game of a Stanley Cup Finals series since New Jersey defeated Anaheim in seven games in 2003...Kaberle and Vancouver's Daniel Sedin each had two assists...Boston went 2-for-5 on the power play while Vancouver was 1- for-6...Krejci leads the playoffs in goals (12) and points (23).