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Kostitsyn brothers lift Canadiens past Bruins

Apr 11, 2008 - 4:04 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- The Montreal Canadiens continued their dominance over the Boston Bruins with the help of a pair of Russian siblings.

Brothers Sergei and Andrei Kostitsyn each scored early in the first period to propel the top-seeded Canadiens to a 4-1 triumph over the eighth-seeded Bruins in Thursday's opening game of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

Bryan Smolinski - who was drafted 21st overall by Boston in 1990 - added his 23rd career playoff goal and Tom Kostopoulos also tallied for Montreal, which hosts Game Two on Saturday.

"The thing is, we have been playing like this since September, there's nothing new to us," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "It's not because it's the playoffs that we had to change anything. We've been playing like this every game, so we just have to keep doing what we did for almost nine months."

Rookie netminder Carey Price made 17 saves in his first postseason start for the Canadiens.

"I thought it was really good," Price said. "The guys played pretty well in front of me, they really helped me out a lot, not seeing as much rubber as normal."

Defenseman Shane Hnidy netted the lone goal and All-Star Tim Thomas finished with 28 saves for Boston, which lost all eight regular-season meetings with its "Original Six" rival and was outscored, 39-16, in the process.

"It's not disrespect, we played really well against the Bruins this year," Carbonneau said. "I know it's a different season. The guys came in today nervous and anxious to start but with a lot of confidence, and that's what we have to keep going."

Sergei Kostitsyn opened the scoring just 34 seconds into the contest.

After Thomas thwarted Steve Begin's blast from the right point with his right pad, the younger Kostitsyn corralled the rebound and slipped the puck just inside the right goalpost to give Montreal a 1-0 lead.

"There was so much noise, I couldn't yell 'screen,'" Thomas said. "(Defenseman Andrew Ference) stuck his foot out, and that gave me an indication where the puck may be going. Then I kind of deflected it and I kind of double-pumped because of the deflection, but (Sergei) Kostitsyn was on the rebound quicker than who could believe."

Andrei Kostitsyn answered his brother's tally just 88 seconds later. The 23-year-old accepted a feed from Tomas Plekanec in the slot and blasted the puck past Thomas to give the Canadiens a 2-0 advantage just 2:02 into the game.

"They came out hard and we didn't have a good start. Unfortunately, they scored two quick goals and put us on our heels," Bruins captain Zdeno Chara said. "We got one before the end of the first, but they made some quick plays and took it away from us."

Hnidy halved the deficit 6 1/2 minutes later, deflecting fellow blue-liner Ference's blast from the left point past Price to get the Bruins on the scoreboard.

"We were still ahead. We weren't going to panic because there's no panic in this room," Price said. "If they score a goal, you just pull up your socks and get back in it."

But Smolinski restored the two-goal advantage just 5:16 into the second period by backhanding a shot from the slot over the extended left pad of Thomas.

"We knew whoever did get the next goal, it was going to be a big one, and we happened to get it," Price said.

Kostopoulos gave the Canadiens a three-goal bulge 7:24 into the third period to cap the scoring.