To win in the Stanley Cup playoffs, it is always good for a team to be versatile when it comes to winning hockey games.
In their second-round series with the New York Rangers, the Boston Bruins have been just that and as a result find themselves up 3-0 heading in Game 4 on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
In Game 1, the Bruins used skill to score an overtime winner to win the game by a score of 3-2 and to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Bruins’ forward, Patrice Bergeron, made a terrific pass under the stick of Rangers’ defenceman Anton Stralman and past a diving Mats Zuccarello that ended up on Brad Marchand’s stick, who then slid it past a sliding Henrik Lundqvist.
Game 2 was a much different story in terms of how the Bruins won the game. They won by keeping it simple and doing things that should help a team win any hockey game.
For starters, the Bruins’ were not afraid to put the puck on the net. The Bruins’ got goals from the point/high slot by Torey Krug and Johnny Boychuk and goals from around the crease area by Gregory Campbell, Brad Marchand and Milan Lucic.
When facing the likes of a goaltender like Lundqvist, it is best to just throw everything on the net, drive to the crease and get in the right areas to score goals. The Bruins used that formula perfectly on Sunday afternoon in Game 2 and because of it, headed off to New York with a 2-0 series lead.
In the team’s 2-1 win in Game 3, the Bruins used their ability to come back to beat the Blueshirts. Heading into the third period at Madison Square Garden, the Bruins were down 1-0 and had trouble solving Lundqvist as he was a perfect 23-23 after two periods.
The Bruins did everything they could to change that in the third period and it worked. Boychuk came up big again when a seeing-eye shot from the point beat Lundqvist to tie the game just over three minutes into the third period.
With less than four minutes to go in the game, the Bruins were able to come through again to get the eventual game-winning goal, which was a strange one. A Campbell shot deflected off of Lundqvist’s helmet and popped up high into the air and then landed in the slot where Daniel Paille was able to put it home and give his team a lead they would never relinquish.
Going into Game 4 it will be interesting to see what else the Bruins have up their sleeves because right now it seems like they are able to pull out wins from almost everywhere.
