After all, in each of the first six games of the Eastern Conference Semifinal series between the hometown Boston Bruins and their arch-nemesis from north of the border, the team that has scored first has been the victor - and just over two minutes in, the Montreal Canadiens had the lead.
Almost immediately afterward and amidst nervous rumblings from the capacity crowd, Bruins' forward Brad Marchand was thrown into the clinks for interfering with Habs' goalie Carey Price, giving Montreal a power play four short minutes later...
...down by a goal and shorthanded was pretty much the nightmare scenario for the Bruins to start the winner-take-all Game 7, and the Canadiens could smell the blood in the water, delivering as much punishment to the Bruins as they could muster without ending up in the box themselves, wanting to seize the opportunity to take total control of the game before the bear woke up.
Which happened just before the end of the first period, but the way that Canadiens' goalie Carey Price was playing, it didn't make any difference.
Max Pacioretty scored the game winner midway through the second period, joining Dale Weise and Daniel Brière with goals that the Bruins made look too easy, the Canadiens beating Boston at TD Garden by a score of 3-1 and advancing to the meet the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final.
Price was fantastic, stopping all but one of Boston's 30 shots - a Jarome Iginla power play goal the lone blemish - while Bruins' goaltender Tuukka Rask faced only 18 Canadiens' offerings, though it seemed like thrice as many, but allowed three to find the net as he was again victimized by sloppy defensive play in front of him and a relentless Montreal forecheck.
The Weise goal was as easy as they come - a textbook backdoor job set up by Daniel Brière, who drew the Bruins' box toward him to the left circle while Weise floated in behind the defenders, then it was just a matter of a simple pass across the low slot to the uncovered Canadien, who directed the point blank offering into the open net on Rask's glove side...
...Pacioretty's gamer playing out almost identically, this time Patrice Bergeron whiffing on a clearing attempt and with the Bruins anticipating a rush the other way vacating the zone, David Desharnais had only Torey Krug to beat, but instead slid a pass just out of reach of the sprawling defenseman and right into Pacioretty's wheelhouse for the one-timer and a two goal lead.
The Bruins got that one back with two minutes left in the middle frame on Iginla's redirect of a Krug drive, but untimely penalties and the swarming Canadiens defense ensured that Boston would get no closer, and Brière potted an insurance dagger with just under three minutes left in regulation, taking a Brendan Gallagher feed from the right wing and splitting Zdeno Chara and Matt Bartkowski and somehow slipping the puck between Rask and the goal post.
This one is going to sting for a while, the Bruins missing on two straight chances to eliminate their most hated rivals, outworked and outscored by a total of seven goals to one in losing the final two games of the series.
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