Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins faceoff live from the TD Garden in Boston for Game 1 of their Round 2 best-of-seven series as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game can be live streamed for free here. Montreal fans can hear all of the action on TSN 690 while Boston fans can do the same on 98.5 The Sports Hub.
These two teams kickoff Round 2 as Montreal swept the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round and haven't played since April 22 while top-seeded Boston rattled off four wins in a row after a Game 1 loss to defeat the Detroit Red Wings in five games with the series ending on Saturday.
The Canadiens defeated the Bruins three out of four times in the regular season with two wins coming in regulation and one in a shootout, but the Bruins notched a 4-1 victory in their final and most recent meeting on March 12. This is the 34th time these Original Six rivals faceoff in a playoff series.
The Canadiens penalty kill was a solid 5-for-7 in Round 1 while its power play faltered, going just 2-for-13 against the Lightning.
"We worked on the power play [Monday] and we'll work on it more," coach Michel Therrien told NHL.com. "We want to create momentum on the power play and we're working with that in mind."
The Bruins lost three of four to the Red Wings in the regular season but were still able to dispatch them in five games. They'll hope to do that again against Montreal, a team that Boston can't seem to stand.
"You know you just naturally learn to hate the Montreal Canadiens, and the battles that we've had with them over the last couple years, it's definitely made you hate them," Bruins forward Milan Lucic said per NHL.com. "And I think this being the first time meeting them outside the first round [since 1992], I think it's definitely going to go up another level."
Lucic (team-high three tallies, one helper), Jarome Iginla (two goals, two assists) and Dougie Hamilton (one marker, three helpers) each had four points to tie for second on the Bruins in Round 1 while defenseman Torey Krug and forward Patrice Bergeron were tied for the team lead in points with five off of a goal and four assists apiece.
Despite the series only lasting four games, the Canadiens had three players with five points in the opening round as Brendan Gallagher had three goals and two assists, Lars Eller found the twine twice and added three helpers and P.K. Subban had five assists. Rene Bourque was one of four Habs to put up four points and tied with Gallagher for the team lead by lighting the lamp three times.
Carey Price will man the crease for Boston after going 4-0 in Round 1 with a 2.33 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage after allowing 10 goals and saving 94 shots while Tuuka Rask will play between the pipes for Boston after earning a 4-1 record along with a playoff-best 1.16 GAA and .961 save percentage off of yielding six goals and turning aside 146 shots.
© 2023 Sportsworldnews.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
