Detroit Red Wings' coach Mike Babcock finally made good on his promise to concentrate on his team's superior speed advantage over the bruising Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon.
Problem is, he made that same promise before Game 3 and Game 4, but instead ended up getting caught up in the physical, heavy game that favors the Bruins - and the results were predictable. In fact, for the first four games of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals series, the Red Wings hit everything in black and gold that moved, initiating a bit of gamesmanship in the clutches...
...but also setting a physical pace that they could not maintain for sixty minutes - but in a matinee performance at TD Garden in North Boston, they eschewed the rough stuff and played Detroit Red Wings' hockey, cranking on the afterburners, skating clean to preserve their energy and at times putting the Bruins' back on their heels.
It still didn't matter.
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| Eriksson celebrates his early goal... |
Tuukka Rask stopped 31 of 33 shots on goal, also recording one assist, to win his fourth straight - Loui Eriksson, Zdeno Chara and Milan Lucic providing all the offense Rask would need and Jarome Iginla added an empty net strike for good measure as the Boston Bruins eliminated the Red Wings in five games, winning the clincher by a score of 4-2.
Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg found twine for Detroit, Datsyuk logging his third of the playoffs - which accounted for exactly half of the Red Wings' offense in the series - and backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson was strong, allowing just one score at even-strength as he dropped his second straight while filling in for flu-sticken starting goaltender Jimmy Howard.
Boston now prepares to meet the hated Montreal Canadiens in the Conference semi-finals, the two Original Six franchises meeting in the post-season for the 34th time.
The speed and the puck-handling prowess of the Red Wings was evident from the opening faceoff, but neither played a part in either of their goals - rather, Bruins' defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Chara made life easy on both of Detroit's veteran snipers - Boychuk getting crossed up on Datsyuk's rebound score and taking out Rask before he had a chance to make the save, same with Chara on Zetterberg's tally as he clipped Rask in an attempt to get between his goalie and the shooter...
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| ...and Iginla and Lucic are psyched over the game winner |
...In effect, both assisting in Red Wings' scoring plays by interfering with their own netminder, to take nothing away from Detroit's effort as they managed to keep Boston's defenders busy in the attacking zone, but hurt their cause by failing to muscle their way into the slot for rebounds and by committing a dozen turnovers on the offensive end.
Conversely, the Bruins were - well - the Bruins. That's usually enough, and Saturday was no exception.
Eriksson gave the Bruins an early lead, taking a Dougie Hamilton feed from deep on the right wing, shoulder-faking the one-timer to draw Gustavsson up into the slot, then dragging the puck to his backhand for the easy flip and a 1-0 lead three and a half minutes into the game, one of two power play goals on the afternoon for Boston.
The other one came with just four seconds left in the second period, just moments after Datsyuk tied things up with a man-advantage score of his own.
After a relatively clean skate for the first 30 minutes, a flurry of penalties marred the last half of the second frame, Datsyuk's tally coming with Lucic in the box for high sticking with a little over five minutes left in the period - then an Eriksson interference penalty coupled with a Johan Franzen holding infraction and a Brendan Smith cross check gave the Bruins a brief four on three man advantage...
...Chara finding a clear shooting lane in the high slot and giving Boston a lead that they would not relinquish - Torey Krug then picking off a Red Wings' clearing attempt on the left wing just over four minutes into the final frame and escorted it down the boards until Lucic was in place in the low slot to Gustavsson's glove side, then firing a centering pass across the crease that Lucic slapped in for the game winner.
Zetterberg's goal gave the Red Wings some late life with just under four minutes remaining, but a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty on Tomas Tatar stalled any plans for a comeback as the Bruins played keep away for the two minute minor, then held off the Red Wings for the final minute, who had pulled Gustavsson for the extra skater - Lucic taking control of a David Krejci faceoff win in the defensive zone, hitting Iginla at center ice who found the empty net for the dagger.
Special teams played a big part in the Bruins' win - as it had all series - the Red Wings managing just one goal in their seven power play opportunities while Boston converted two of six - and the Bruins also held advantages in most statistical categories including a wide margin in both hits and faceoff wins...
...advantages that Detroit held in the first four games of the series as they tried in vain to match the Bruins' physicality - proof that it really didn't matter which way Detroit played it, they simply couldn't breach the heavy layers of the Bruins' structure, hard as they tried.
Next up, the Montreal Canadiens, who can play the physical game with a hop in their step - and pose a very stout and very real challenge to their longest and most despised rivals in the Bruins.
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