It was 21 years ago when the Montreal Canadiens, the proudest of all NHL franchises, last won the Stanley Cup, the 22nd in their history.
Now, after completely dominating the Boston Bruins in Games 6 and 7 of their second-round playoff series, the Habs have a chance to end the drought. They made it to the league’s final four for the first time since 2010 and for only the second time since the 1993 cup run.
“We just beat the best team in the league,” coach Michel Therrien said after his Canadiens beat the Bruins 3-1 and advanced to meet the New York Rangers in another Original Six matchup.
Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals is tomorrow afternoon in Montreal.
“Any time you’re moving onto the conference finals, it feels good,” said defenseman P.K. Subban, a true force in the series. “When you think about it, you have an opportunity to get one step closer to the Stanley Cup.”
“We deserve it. We played hard. Nothing has come easy for us all year. We’ve worked hard for everything we’ve gotten. As a player, when you hear some of the things that are said and the way people have disrespected us both on and off the ice, I’m happy for this group,” he added.
Carey Price made 29 saves, while right-winger Dale Wiese, left-winger Max Pacioretty and center Daniel Briere scored goals for the Canadiens on Wednesday.
The Canadiens finished 17 points behind the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins in the regular season.
Briere, who set up the Wiese goal, put the game away when his late power-play centering pass hit Chara’s skate and deflected past goaltender Tuukka Rask and into the net.
Right-winger Jarome Iginla scored the lone Bruins goal, cutting a 2-0 Montreal lead in half late in the second period.
Iginla had several chances in the third, but could not score.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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