Through the first 14 shots fired his way in overtime, Flyers' netminder Brian Boucher was perfect. Under attack throughout majority of the frame, Boucher made one dazzling stop after another to keep the pressing B's at bay. But with 6:08 to go in the period, Boucher's luck ran out and one of the most fascinating storybook finishes in Bruins' playoff history unfolded.
Center Marc Savard, in his first game back since suffering a grade two concussion on the seventh of March, rifled a loose puck in the faceoff circle up and over Boucher and into the back of the net. The raucous Garden crowd erupted as Savard and his unmistakable grin leaped into the boards in celebration with his teammates quickly bolting in his direction to pay thanks to the savior.
At that moment, one had to wonder if they were in Boston or Hollywood. An injured star, presumed lost for the season, comes back and saves the day with a scintillating strike in OT of the playoffs? Try crafting a better script.
“When they tied it and we went in the room I felt like, ‘Jeez, I think this is how it’s supposed to be right here.’” Savard admitted to thinking before overtime.
The star pivot, renown for his pass-first mentality, had already made up his mind to shoot before the puck landed at his feet.
“It just landed perfect and I clipped it with everything. Like I said, it was all Dennis [Wideman] pinching. And I think they had a penalty coming too. They whacked Dennis’ [Wideman] stick out of his hand. So I just thought, ‘Oh, why not get a shot on net here and see what happens?’ And it went in.”
With the goal, the Bruins’ maintained home-ice advantage in the series after the Flyers tried relentlessly to spoil Savard’s return. Boston jumped out to three different two-goal leads on the afternoon. After following up every Flyers’ tally with a goal of their own, Danny Briere finally broke the trend with under four minutes to go in regulation.
With his team trailing 4-3, Briere gathered the puck 20 feet shy of his own blueline and busted toward Boston’s end. The slick-skating forward barreled through neutral ice before splitting two defenders, leaving Tuukka Rask all alone. Rask stopped the initial shot but Briere buried his own rebound to knot things up.
After Boucher stopped a flurry of opportunities early on in the extra session, Tuukka Rask was forced to make his biggest save of the night. Dan Carcillo stormed in on a breakaway, but the rookie netminder stuck with him by shifting from left to right, making a crucial positional stop.
“He came in kind of from the side and made a move across. He tried to go five-hole and it just hit my pad.” Rask, who stopped 32 of 36, said of the play. “In OT, you got to make those saves sometimes.”
Considering the trouble they had holding a lead, seeing the B’s come out and play safe, defensive hockey was likely what everyone at the TD Garden expected. But the Black and Gold were practically in all-out attack mode, finishing the period with a 15-4 shot advantage.
"We just came out and played. We went out and tried to win it. We didn’t play to lose it we went out to play to win it. And I think they had one or two chances as well but for the most part I think we probably had six, seven or eight quality scoring chances in overtime." Mark Recchi, who had an assist and was +2 on the afternoon, said.
"Like I said it’s great that we got the win. You never know when you get to overtime, if you get a fluky bounce the other way. But it was great Savvy made a play and it’s nice to have him back."
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