Gorges Penalty Costs Canadiens; Bruins Take Game 1

0georges It was a penalty to forget for the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals Thursday night against the Boston Bruins.

After crawling their way back into the game after digging themselves a 2-0 hole, Josh Gorges’ undisciplined cross-checking call led to the eventual game winning goal on the powerplay by Bruins captain Zdeno Chara.

The Canadiens had killed off the other three Bruin powerplays during the night, in which centre Tomas Plekanec was in the box. However, the Bruins capitalized on many sloppy mistakes in the Montreal end that put the Canadiens down 2-0.

Phil Kessel pounced on a puck that was jammed cross-crease from underneath Carey Price by David Krejci for the 1-0 lead and only a minute later Krejci would get his own goal as the Canadiens once again were caught standing around.

The Canadiens fought back and got on the scoresheet with under five to play in the period as Chris Higgins put home a shot from high in the slot. Alex Kovalev would put up the only second period marker to make it 2-2.

Eventually, Chara would tilt the game back Boston’s way and Kessel put the game out of reach with an empty net goal.

The series has just begun and the Canadiens have shown they can compete with the Bruins. Many have predicted the Bruins to go deep in the playoff run, but if they have more scares like they did in Game 1 against teams that have barely made the playoffs, the Bruins deep run may not be as deep as many have predicted.

Just remember, this playoff season, the roles have been reversed from 2008.

The Canadiens have a chance to tie the series going back to the Bell Centre Saturday night. For them, their playoff lives depend on it.