Tuukka Falls, Goes Boom-Boom As Bs Blow Game Four
The Bruins pissed away a golden opportunity to bury the Rangers in New York last night but couldn’t make their 2-0 second period lead stand up and ultimately fell 4-3 in OT to cut their series lead to 3-1. Despite playing their worst game of the series and letting in two shitty goals, the Bruins still had a chance to sweep until 7:03 of OT, when Chris Kreider got his stick in front of Dougie Hamilton to tip the winner past Tuukka Rask and give the Rangers a glimmer of hope.
It was an ugly end to an ultimately ugly evening in the city for the Bs. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to power play tallies from Nathan Horton and the hot-as-Hades Torey Krug to turn MSG into the largest branch of the New York Public Library system. But then Rask turned into Jack Tripper which allowed the Rags, and their fans, back into the game.
The goalie apparently caught an edge and fell on his ass just as Carl Hagelin flung a back-hander toward the net. Johnny Boychuk caught a piece of the puck to alter its trajectory and slow it down as it crawled toward the net. Sitting up like a toddler in a kiddie pool, Rask feebly waved at the puck with his paddle as it torturously crossed the goal line to awaken a team and a building.
The Rangers tied things up early in the third when Derek Stepan picked Zdeno Chara’s pocket behind the net and beat a lackadaisical Rask on a wraparound goal. Hamilton told reporters after the game that he failed to give Z a heads-up that Stepan was coming in hard after Rask corralled the puck for Bs captain. Despite the two ugly goals, the Bruins were still in a position to win thanks to Tyler Seguin finally breaking his 2013 playoff scoring cherry by putting back his own rebound to give the Bs a 3-2 lead.
But less than two minutes later, Brian Boyle swept away any notions of a sweep when his power play tally evened things back up again. The goal came courtesy of, what else?, an inexcusable too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty. Just a horrible penalty to take at a most inopportune time. I don’t know if a guy stayed on too long or if somebody came on too soon but the Bruins need to clean that shit up because the next time it happens, they may not have the cushion of a 3-0 series lead.
After that particular infraction, longtime Bs fans knew exactly how this one was going to play out. The Bruins lost an offensive zone draw with 13:05 left in OT after Henrik Lundqvist stoned their last great scoring chances before Kreider finished the script. Kreider and Nash came down on Hamilton and Chara, respectively. Whether through strength or positioning or perhaps a little of both, Kreider was able to get around Hamilton to get his stick on Nash’s feed and send everybody home.
For the Bs, it’s hardly the end of the world. They merely failed to sweep a team that finally decided to show up but they still have a huge advantage. But they did do one potentially dangerous thing—they gave the Rangers hope. They can snuff out that hope tomorrow evening at the Garden merely by reverting back to playing the way they’re capable of. The last thing the Bs want to do is go back to New York because they know all too well just how ugly an ending this series can have if they don’t pull their shit together.
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