Eastern Conference Finals Game 2: Boston 6 - Carolina 2
After an impressive 5-2 win in Game 1 of this series, the Bruins looked to keep hold of home ice advantage and head to Carolina up two games to none. Carolina came out of the gate hard and fast matching the physicality that the B’s have played with throughout the playoffs. While it looked that Carolina would be the better of the teams, Boston came alive. They looked great in the first period, picking up exactly where they left off in Game 1. The scoring was started with under 5 minutes to play in the period as Marcus Johansson skated in the attacking zone with the puck and found Matt Grzelcyk who would sneak the puck past Petr Mrazek for the 1-0 lead.
Carolina now playing on their heels and trying to overcome the deficit, couldn’t get much going after the goal. Three minutes later, the Bruins would double their lead after Jake DeBrusk scored his first goal since Game 3 against Columbus. With just over a minute and a half left in the period and the Bruins on the power play, DeBrusk would beat Mrazek after getting the rebound of a save and jammed it home.
As we move onto the second period, the Bruins just kept up the fast pace, hard hitting, and the many scoring chances. Not long into the period they would increase their lead to 3-0 after Connor Clifton, the Quinnipiac product, scored his first NHL goal on a really nice play by Marcus Johansson. When the Bruins entered the attacking zone, Johansson held the puck patiently as defenders stepped out of position and Mrazek being the aggressive goalie that he is, came way out of the goal mouth leaving an empty net for Clifton who would receive the pass from Johansson and increase the lead with his first career NHL goal.
The Bruins would not stop there as they just kept pouring it on in the second period, led by Brad Marchand doing what he does best, getting under the skin of the opponent. After messing with Justin Williams the Hurricanes captain, he drew the roughing penalty on Williams leading to another power play opportunity. On the power play, the B’s continued to roll over the Hurricanes. Matt Grzelcyk scored his second goal of the game giving the Bruins a 4-0 lead when Charlie Coyle drew two defenders and dropped the puck to a trailing Grzelcyk who was able to beat Mrazek with a backhand shot.
In the third period, the Bruins just continued to pour it on as the Hurricanes had no answer for the attack. With the Bruins already holding a four goal lead, they didn’t sit back and let the Hurricanes control the tempo. With just over a minute played of the period, the Bruins sent down an attack that led to a scramble in front of the net and David Backes was able to come up with the puck and put it in the net to make it 5-0.
Shortly after the Backes goal, Patrice Bergeron took a penalty sending the Bruins to the penalty kill once again where they have been fantastic in this series. As penalty time was expiring, the Bruins took control of the puck in their defensive zone. Charlie Coyle was able to throw a stretch pass to Bergeron as he exited the penalty box and he went with Danton Heinen 2-on-1 where Heinen would score to blow the doors off this game 6-0.
At just past the halfway mark in the game and the Bruins absolutely dominating, the Hurricanes would end their scoring drought after allowing 10 straight Bruins goals, when Justin Faulk fired a shot from the blue line that was redeflected by Justin Williams past Tuukka Rask who didn’t have to make the flashy saves today. He did get beat a second time inside three minutes to play, but it was nothing more than a stat padding goal for Teuvo Teravainen and the Hurricanes. With very little time to play in this game it appeared Carolina was packing it up and getting ready to head home where they now need to win 4 out of 5 games against the hottest team in the NHL. This series isn’t done yet, but the Bruins are doing a great job of putting the Hurricanes away early. Game 3 will be on Tuesday night at 8pm in Carolina and the Bruins will look to put Carolina on the brink of elimination.
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