Canadiens stun Bruins
Montreal advances to Eastern Conference finals vs. Rangers.
Carey Price stopped 29 shots to help Montreal beat the host Boston Bruins 3-1 in Game 7 on Wednesday night and put the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference finals.
Montreal will host the New York Rangers for a spot in the Stanley Cup finals. Game 1 is Saturday.
Dale Weise, Max Pacioretty and Daniel Briere scored for the Canadiens, who advanced to the conference finals for just the second time since winning the most recent of their NHL-record 24 Stanley Cup titles in 1993.
Jarome Iginla scored and Tuukka Rask made 15 saves for Boston.
The Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011 and returned to the finals last year, losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games. Boston finished with the best record in the regular season this year, but its road stopped against the Original Six rival in another classic playoff series.
In front of boisterous crowds on both sides of the border, the Canadiens won the 34th playoff series between the two clubs — the ninth that went the seven-game distance. And, despite giving up home-ice advantage, Montreal quieted the Boston fans quickly.
Just 2:18 into the game, Briere dug a pass out of the left corner and centered to Weise, who redirected it past Rask. The Canadiens made it 2-0 midway through the second period when David Desharnais chased down a loose puck to set up a 2-on-1 with Pacioretty, who one-timed it past Rask.
Boston made it a onegoal game when Torey Krug’s wrist shot was de- flected into the net by Iginla just 2:02 into the second period. But despite outshooting Montreal 21-12 over the final 40 minutes, the Bruins were not able to tie it up.
The Canadiens made it 3-1 when Johnny Boychuk drew a penalty with 4½ minutes to play. Briere then scored off Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara’s skate.
Blackhawks eliminate Wild: Patrick Kane scored on a backhand at 9:42 of overtime to lift Chicago to a 2-1 victory over host Minnesota Wild in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals late Tuesday night, moving a step closer to defending their title.
They needed to come back from a 2-0 deficit to beat St. Louis in the first series and were pushed hard by the upstart Wild in Round 2. They will meet either Anaheim or Los Angeles in the West- ern Conference finals.
“It was a very competitive series,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Both these series were tight, tough, demanding. But certainly you get a break here about what we accomplished. We should be excited about what we’ve achieved, enjoy the break, knowing we have a very tough opponent coming up.”
Kris Versteeg scored at 1:58 of the first period and Corey Crawford made 34 saves for the Blackhawks, who are 140 in Games 5 or 6 of playoff series that were tied following Game 4.