Bruins Meant Business

Let’s face it – Sunday’s game was an absolute schooling of the Carolina Hurricanes by the Boston Bruins. It seemed that as soon as the Boston Bruins got on the scoreboard first, that there was no turning back for them.

After having taken a huge hit from Michael Ferland, who dished out three solid hits during the game, Matt Grzelcyk came back a few shifts later, with 4:38 remaining in a scoreless first period, and buried the puck to show that he could and would take a hit, but it wouldn’t stop him from doing his job and then some. Grzelcyk doesn’t shy away from a physical game and has been known to do his fair share of hitting. And perhaps the hockey gods were rewarding the hometown guy. He had two shots on net and both of them went in.

“You know, you kind of shirk it off and back to work and scores a goal, whatever it was, two shifts later, so certainly gives us a lift. I’m not surprised. He’s a tough kid, and in this playoff season – any playoff season – you’re going to take some hits, take a number, get back out there and play the game. Keep discipline and at some point, if you get a chance to be physical against them, you take advantage of it, and that’s the way it works,” said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy.

However, that first goal after the hit started a watershed of goals for the Bruins, with five different players putting the puck in the net. A second goal was scored in the first period—this one by Jake DeBrusk while the Bruins were on the power play at 18:32.

Usually Boston’s weaker period in the playoffs has been the second, but they came out with the same drive and determination that they brought to the first. With a wide-open net—the result of the Carolina Hurricanes netminder Petr Mrazek overcommitting to his left side as Marcus Johannson held onto the puck for just a second longer before passing it, it rebounded off the skate of Canes Greg McKegg to Connor Clifton who put it in. For Clifton it was not only his first goal scored in the playoffs, but it was his first NHL career goal as well. Though drafted by the Arizona Coyotes, he went unsigned by them after he graduated from Quinnipiac University in 2017. Instead he signed with the Boston Bruins, spending all of his first year as a professional with the Providence Bruins. This season found him splitting his time between the Providence AHL club and the Boston Bruins.

“Had a little rush there and ended up behind the goal line, I threw it to—I think it was [Danton Heinen] there—something bobbled around and I stayed net-front and had a wide-open net. It was pretty easy,” Clifton said of what he saw.

He was understandably quite happy, with a big smile. And when he was asked about if he would be giving the puck to his mother—since it was Mother’s Day when he scored—he joked that he would think about it before saying that he likely would. His mother was in the arena and got to see him score that goal that put the Bruins up 3-0 just 3:46 into the middle frame. He also became the 19th player on the Bruins roster to contribute a goal in the playoffs.

Grzelcyk got his second goal of the game, while the Bruins were on the power play, at 17:56 of the second period. Meanwhile Tuukka Rask continued to deny the Hurricanes, having stopped 17 shots in the first 40 minutes of the game. As the teams left for the second intermission the score was 4-0 in favor of the Bruins.

Things seemed to pick up right where they left off, when the teams returned for the third period. Just 1:10 into the final frame of regulation, David Backes put the team in black and gold up 5-0, as he stayed near the net front putting the errant puck in. Roughly 90 seconds later, Danton Heinen notched the Bruins’ sixth goal of the game.

Despite the Bruins being up by six goals, Carolina did not stop playing and captain Justin Williams finally got his team on the scoresheet at 11:17 of the third to at least ruin any chances Rask had of getting another playoff shutout. Six minutes later Teuvo Teraveinen added a second goal for the Hurricanes, perhaps showing that they weren’t going to go down quietly, and maybe giving his team a little momentum to carry forward as the games head south.

“I thought we had a great game all around. One of our best efforts this playoffs, like 60 minutes. We took care of business at home. We know it’s a tough place to play in there, so we are going to have to be ready,” Heinen said after the game.

While much had been made of the “storm warning” and the threat of the Hurricanes, there was a lot of chatter on social networking indicating that Carolina had been downgraded to a tropical depression during the game. They indeed seemed to be completely unprepared for the way the Bruins were playing. Perhaps they had underestimated that the Bruins enjoy a physical game. In the first period alone there had been 34 hits between the two teams, 20 for Boston and 14 for Carolina. The Bruins thrive on that style of game.

The next two games will be played in Raleigh, where the Hurricanes have done well this postseason. After all they eliminated the Washington Capitals in the first round, despite having been down two games. And they swept the New York Islanders in the second round. The Bruins are not expecting the next two games to be easy, knowing that they must bring continue to play hard and bring a solid effort once again.