Montreal goaltender Carey Price was in spectacular form in earning his third career playoff shutout as the Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins 2-0 in Game 1 on Thursday.
Price turned aside 31 shots, while Brian Gionta scored both goals at Boston’s TD Garden to give the Habs the early advantage in their best-of-seven series.
“If you were going to write it down on paper how you wanted to play, that is exactly the road game you would want,” Price said.
Photo: AFP
Both Gionta’s goals came on assists from Scott Gomez, who made the Bruins pay for a pair of turnovers. His first came just 2 minutes, 45 seconds into the game after Gomez gathered up a turnover from Tomas Kaberle in the Bruins zone.
He quickly sent a pass to Gionta on the far post instead of Mathieu Darche, who was directly in front of the Boston goal.
“I didn’t know there was a guy at the back door,” Boston goalie Tim Thomas said. “I was playing the guy in front and it looked like he was the one who was going to pick it off.”
Photo: AFP
The second came when Gomez stole the puck from Milan Lucic at the Bruins blue line and set up Gionta with just 3 minutes, 18 seconds left in the third period.
Price had to be at his best as the Bruins chased the game, particularly in the second period where Boston outshot Montreal 18-6. The host outshot the Habs 31-20 in the game.
“If you’re going to score goals on that goaltender, you need to take away his vision and we didn’t do a good enough job of that,” Boston coach Claude Julien said.
Photo: AFP
“We were all around the net, but we weren’t in front. You know, that’s something that has to get better,” Julien said
SABRES 1, FLYERS 0
In Philadelphia, Ryan Miller stopped 35 shots for his second career postseason shutout and Patrick Kaleta scored to lift Buffalo over Philadelphia in Game 1.
Miller stopped every shot under all types of pressure and carried the Sabres to the clutch opening win.
The teams have met eight times in the postseason and the Game 1 winner won the series each time.
Kaleta snapped the scoreless tie early in the third period when he powered a rebound past rookie Sergei Bobrovsky.
No team were more resilient in last year’s playoffs than the Flyers. They trailed Boston 3-0 in the East semi-finals, before taking the series and playing until a Game 6 loss to Chicago in the Stanley Cup finals.
SHARKS 3, KINGS 2, OT
In San Jose, California, Joe Pavelski scored 14 minutes, 44 seconds into overtime to give San Jose a victory over Los Angeles in Game 1 of their all-California opening round playoff series.
Pavelski took a pass from Kyle Wellwood as the trailer on a three-on-two advantage and fired a forehand past Jonathan Quick for his third career playoff overtime goal.
Dany Heatley and Logan -Couture also scored for the Sharks, who had lost five of their previous six series openers. Antti Niemi made 33 saves.
Dustin Brown and Justin Williams scored for the Kings, who have won just one playoff series since going to the Stanley Cup final with Wayne Gretzky in 1993. Quick made 42 saves.
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