The Penguins and Bruins were the number one and two teams, respectively, in terms of defense throughout the regular season. You know what they say about using regular season stats in the playoffs - throw them out the window. That might be an understatement after the Penguins fall 8-5 in a very strange first game in the best-of-seven series.
"There's a reason we lost the game," head coach John Hynes said. "We have to be better in certain areas and the focus right now is to take the lessons of the game, the good and the bad, and be a better team tomorrow."
Despite a great start to the game for the Penguins, which saw them ahead 1-0 on the scoreboard after a Chad Kolarik penalty shot goal, the Bruins showed why they are a dangerous team in the second period after tying the game at one late in the first.
The second period was not kind to the Penguins tonight. They saw Dylan Reese take a big and high hit from Bobby Robins that knocked Reese's helmet off and left him dazed. He skated off on his own power after being tended to by trainer Kyle Moore but Reese did not return to the game.
Hynes said he would review the hit before deciding whether to submit it to the league for further review and a possible suspension. The hit was unpenalized. Reese's status for tomorrow night's Game Two is very much in question.
The Bruins racked off four goals in a span of 5:15 in the second frame, with a Brian Gibbons rebound goal in the middle of that and a Paul Thompson power play backhand goal shortly after the Bruins' surge.
"We had a lot of major defensive breakdowns and let our goalie out to dry," defenseman and team captain Joey Mormina said. "For us to win this series we have to be a lot better defensively."
Another scare for the Penguins took place at the tail end of the 2nd period as a knee-on-knee hit between Garnet Exelby and Chad Kolarik sent Kolarik sprawling to the ice and he skated off without putting pressure on his right leg. Kolarik returned for the third period.
The game was still in reach at 5-3 heading into the third period before Craig Cunningham's 2nd of the postseason pushed the Bruins' lead back to three. Just when you thought the scoring was capped at nine total goals between the two teams, another scoring surge of four goals - this one in just 2:57 - made the game once again very interesting. Not that there needed to be any more interest sparked.
Chris Collins tipped in a Jayson Megna shot on the power play to make it a 6-4 WBS deficit and a weird bounce off the corner boards 48 seconds later gave Thompson his second goal of the night to make it a one goal game with 2:41 left in regulation.
On the next shift, Collins receives a pass in the high slot, gets a good shot off and is robbed by the pad of Niklas Svedberg.
"It's a seven game series," Collins said. "We were just talking on the bench to just go out there and keep playing the game the right way, invest in every shift. We got a couple good bounces and we almost tied it up there. We can take the postives from that for sure."
That would be as close as the Penguins would get as Chris Bourque came down the wing and fired a puck over Zatkoff's shoulder and off the post and in. Jamie Tardif added a late power play goal for the 8-5 final score.
"It's playoffs," Collins added. "You never know what you're going to get. Every game is different."
Game Two of the series is tomorrow night in Providence at 7:05 p.m. EDT.
ROSTER NOTES
Jeff Zatkoff got the start in net tonight for Game One. The only lineup change was Bobby Farnham in for Dominik Uher.
Lines
Holzapfel-Smith-Kolarik
Nesbitt-Gibbons-Thompson
Collins-Peters-Payerl
Farnham-Sill-Megna
Reese-Dumoulin
Mormina-Samuelsson
McNeill-Grant
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