The goal itself was simple. It was scored Carl Soderberg dug the puck loose from the right pad of Carey Price, as big bodied Matt Fraser pushed past a pair of Canadians and as he fell to the ice, blindly whacked the puck through Price's five hole. But in all its grit and lack of finesse, the goal served as a whacky, cheesy, Hollywood ending to a game described by those same adjectives.
Since the Bruins started their death-match second round series with Montreal back on the first day of May, they had made a habit of starting slow as through those 3 games, 8 of the team's 10 goals had been scored in the 3rd period of later. While that sure makes for some exciting 3rd period hockey, it also evolved into 2 losses in the first 3 games of the series with the only victory for Boston coming out of a game that held a one in a million 4 goal 3rd period.
A game like that was not going to happen again and so, as the Bruins went into the Bell Centre for Game Four, they did so knowing that they could not fall behind early in this game. If Game Four was a game to be won by the Bruins it was one that had to be won with decisiveness and execution. Among the biggest factors that had prevented that from happening in the first 3 games and would try to do the same in Game Four was PK Subban.
Subban, a 4 year veteran of the league came into the series already known as a Bruins killer. He only solidified his reputation for dominating Bruins defenders in the first games of this 2014 series. After logging a goal in regulation as well as the double OT winner against the Bruins in Game One, PK would assist on 3 more goals and score another in games two and three playing a near reckless offensive minded defense. However, the Bruins were soft and never exploited the many times in the first 3 games where Subban was caught momentarily out of position after a reckless pinch or hard shot.
To stop him from getting into the offensive side of the game, Boston would have to send their forwards right at him as well as simply sky the puck out of their zone whenever Subban was able to get into a shooting position. Much of the Bruins game plan was tailored to the threat of PK Subban's shot.
Their tailoring paid off. The Bruins limited Subban to just 2 shots in the game one of which was a lackluster roller Subban bounced in on Tuukka Rask from the half line. However in their obsession with eliminating Subban's role in the Canadians attack, the Bruins stymied their own attack. Though the game was very fluid in its gradual shifts in momentum as well as highly tactical moves made by the coaches on both teams, both teams focused on defense and body contact. Not many of the 68 shots taken in the game were taken from anywhere but the blue line or the boards.
However, what did happen almost constantly in this game was body contact...big body contact. In 61 minutes and 19 seconds of game play, the Bruins and Canadians launched 72 hits or an average of 1.2 hits per minute. From the first puck drop to the end of the game, every time a player whering any sweater of any sort crossed the blue line a player of the opposite team was there to cave in his rib cage. At one point in the 3rd period even, Canadians defender Douglass Murray delivered 3 hits in under 7 seconds of game play decking Carl Soderberg, Reily Smith and then Soderberg again in the Canadians corner.
"We're working tough enough to get that next goal," Daniel Paille had told 98.5 The Sports Hub after the end of regulation. "What it's going to take is someone outbattling the other, so that has to be us."
In the end it was the battle that won out. In the most magical of finishes, Matt Fraser poked in the OT winner that also served as his first goal as a Bruin and his first career playoff goal.
For the newest Bruin to step up, Thursday was one of the greatest days of his life.
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