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Price, Canadiens blank Bruins, advance to East semis

Apr 22, 2008 - 4:46 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Carey Price would not let the Boston Bruins conjure up any third-period magic this time.

The rookie netminder made 25 saves to record his second shutout of the postseason and Andrei Kostitsyn scored twice as the Montreal Canadiens advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 5-0 victory over the Bruins in Game Seven of their conference quarterfinal.

Defensemen Mike Komisarek and Mark Streit tallied and Sergei Kostitsyn also scored for the top-seeded Canadiens, who will now face either the fifth-seeded New York Rangers or the sixth-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in the semifinals.

"It was a happy ending," Montreal captain Saku Koivu said. "You have to give credit to our opponents, we lost Games Five and Six and Boston made a series of it.

"In the second period, we got the puck in deep and our four lines played great, but it was Carey that made the saves for us."

All-Star Tim Thomas stopped 30 shots for eighth-seeded Boston, which had overcome a three-games-to-one deficit to force a Game Seven.

"We weren't only playing for ourselves, we were playing for the city (of Boston)," Thomas said. "Everyone in this locker room gave 110 percent."

"We didn't want it to go to a seventh game, up 2-0 and 3-1," Price said. "We think it's going to be an easy series and the Bruins come back, but we get the win tonight and that makes it special. We still have a long way to go here, so hopefully we learned that it's not going to be easy."

The previous time the Bruins made the playoffs in 2004, they were also eliminated by the Canadiens in seven games. Montreal was down three games to one in that series.

Boston used four-goal third periods in each of the previous two contests to force a decisive Game Seven, but Price had little trouble protecting Montreal's three-goal lead entering the final session in this one.

"That this is the playoffs and you can't take any days off or games off or think that it's going to be easy," Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said. "You have to show up and be ready every game."

"In the playoffs, you always get adversity," Price said. "There isn't a team that won the Stanley Cup that hasn't faced adversity. It's a great character-builder for us."

The 20-year-old turned aside 11 shots in the first period, six in the second and eight in the third to secure the Canadiens a place in the conference semifinals. Price became the fourth rookie netminder in NHL history to record a shutout in a Game Seven.

"It's more important to get the win," Price said of the blanking. "We could have won 10-9, it would been just as important."

"'Pricey' stood tall, at this time of year you really need solid goaltending," Komisarek said. "He handled himself like a 10-year veteran and we're going to need that as the playoffs go on."

Komisarek opened the scoring at 3:31 of the first period. Alexei Kovalev sent a pass to Komisarek, who was stationed on the left point. Komisarek's one-timer deflected off the stick of Boston's Petteri Nokelainen, altering its path just enough to squeak past Thomas' outstretched right pad.

Streit's first goal of the postseason gave Montreal some breathing room, making it 2-0 at 10:45 of the second on a tic-tac-toe passing play.

Maxim Lapierre made a drop pass which was picked up by Streit, who was streaking in the slot. Streit turned Bruins captain Zdeno Chara inside out, gave a head fake to Thomas and slid the puck under the netminder.

The Kostitsyn brothers combined to give the Canadiens a 3-0 bulge with 4:47 remaining in the second session just as Chara's minor penalty expired. The younger Kostitsyn, Sergei fed a pass to his older brother in the slot and he unleashed a quick wrister that sailed over Thomas' left shoulder.

"It seems the last couple of games we'd get that one-goal lead, but we couldn't get the goals to put them back on their heels," Komisarek said. "Tonight, I think our second period was a statement period - and it really paid off."

Andrei Kostitsyn scored a power-play goal with just 2:02 remaining and Sergei Kostitsyn added another tally in the final eight seconds to seal the win.

Kovalev had two assists for Montreal, which had defeated Boston in all eight regular-season meetings this campaign.

"I don't think that there's much that's going to ease the pain tonight," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We competed hard and wanted to win tonight, so there's nothing that's going to ease the pain.

"I'm sure that when I speak again in a few days and talk about our hockey club, there's no doubt that there's going to be some excitement there about getting back to work with a lot of positive things we've seen and accomplished this year."