• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Savard powers Bruins past Canadiens

Apr 14, 2008 - 3:56 AM By Tony Lee PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- After 13 straight losses over 13-plus miserable months of play against their archrivals, the Boston Bruins finally hit back.

All-Star Marc Savard scored his first career playoff goal just 9:25 into overtime to propel the eighth-seeded Bruins to a 2-1 triumph over the top-seeded Montreal Canadiens in Game Three of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series on Sunday.

Rookie Milan Lucic had a goal and All-Star Tim Thomas made 27 saves - including a series of stellar stops in overtime - as Boston defeated Montreal for the first time since March 3, 2007. The Bruins host Game Four on Tuesday night with a chance to knot the series heading back to Canada.

"It's a great win for us for all the right reasons," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "It gets the monkey off our back. Thirteen losses. Obviously it gets us back in this series but we realize we're still trailing and there's still lots of work to be done."

The Canadiens, who won Game Two on Alexei Kovalev's overtime tally on Saturday, got a goal from Tom Kostopoulos and solid goaltending from rookie Carey Price, who stopped 29 shots in losing to the Bruins for the first time in six starts.

It also Montreal's first loss in its last six playoff games against Boston. Count Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau as one of those who wasn't surprised.

"No one expected to win in four games," Carbonneau said. "We still have a game Tuesday. We'll just have to regroup."

Savard's game-winner ended over 44 minutes of tense, scoreless hockey and signified a major turnaround for the veteran, who missed the final seven games of the regular season with a back injury.

"It was nice to see him score that goal, obviously, and the assist on (Lucic's) goal as well," Julien said. "We all know he's been through a painful injury and to see him come back, battle that way, and see him rewarded is great."

The dramatic finale came after a Boston rush left the puck on the stick of defenseman Dennis Wideman, who shot it cross-ice to Savard in the circle. The veteran found an opening past Price and was soon mobbed by his teammates along the boards.

Savard said he was screaming for the puck, left alone to Price's left.

"When (Wideman) picked it off, I knew he saw me and I was yelling at the top of my lungs," Savard said. "He made a great play to get it over to me. I knew I had an open net there."

Although the rivalry had been so one-sided on the scoreboard, there was no shortage of ill feelings on both benches as Sunday saw a physical affair.

A hard-hitting first period ended with a post-horn fight between Boston defenseman Shane Hnidy and Montreal's Guillaume Latendresse. Amid all the nastiness came a pretty goal by Lucic that gave the Bruins their first lead over the Canadiens since March 22, 2007, the second game of Montreal's winning streak.

Savard won a puck along the boards near the left circle and snuck a pass to Lucic in front. The 6-4, 220-pound left wing beat Price with a one-timer for his first career playoff goal.

"It was huge, the first time all year we've started off with first goal of the game," Lucic said.

"It was a different feeling obviously, but we are not going to quit just because they scored first," Price said.

And they didn't.

Although Boston opened the second period on the power play, its hard-earned advantage was short-lived. Less than five minutes in, Kostopoulos skated in from the side of the net and muscled the puck by the feet of Thomas.

It was Kostopoulos' second goal of the series and served to reinvigorate the portion of the sellout crowd dressed in red, white and blue, sprinkled throughout TD Banknorth Garden.

The 17,565 on hand vied for the upper hand in noise throughout, lending a soccer-like atmosphere to the arena.

"It was great, especially when you looked around at the beginning and saw a lot of Montreal fans, they tried to take it over," Julien said. "Our fans stood tall and wouldn't let them. It was nice to see, obviously we let them know that this was our building, not theirs."

Thomas provided most of the cheers just before Savard ended it, stopping Kostopoulos with a tremendous pad save on a shot that looked as if it might end things.

"I was just coming out in overtime trying to be ready for everything, ready for all the little bounces because a lot of overtime goals are like that," said Thomas, who made six saves overall in the extra session. "So I was just telling myself be ready for everything. When they did get some chances I was focused."