Kuraly scored twice in Friday’s 3-2 double overtime victory, including the victor, to lift the Bruins back into their opening round best-of-seven with the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.
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“We’re going to use this (off) time well and we’re going to prepare to play NY here in the second round, and we’ve got to keep pushing forward”, said defenceman Erik Karlsson, who admitted after the game that he played the entire series with two hairline fractures in his left heel. He tallied eight points (four goals, four assists) in 18 regular-season games with the Bruins, and he added two more goals in the six-game Round 1 series versus Ottawa.
“I was just at the tail end of (my shift) and the puck lands on my stick and then (I put) it into the back of the net”, Kuraly said.
“I’ve been playing on shots (injections), and by Thursday, it should be back to normal”, he told ESPN Boston’s Joey MacDonald.
With the Senators taking an early 2-0 lead into the game, Sens Army would have been forgiven for beginning to celebrate.
“There’s nothing like living in the National Hockey League and living in these playoffs”, MacArthur said after his second goal of the series sent his team into the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Rangers. You work a long time for it and it felt great. Mark Stone scored in the first period for Ottawa and then Jean Gabriel-Pageau scored 30 seconds into the second period. It wasn’t easy. We had to streak some games together. With only a couple potential games left we’d love to close this out as soon as we can. One game away, and one win. Which isn’t impossible, but is going to lie heavily on the more physically-inclined Bruins players.
The Senators struck twice in the second period.
The Bruins’ season on the brink finally reached its limit, just like their talent. That’s it in a nutshell. Throughout the series, we have seen the Bruins get a little demoralized after trailing first.
Bergeron brought the hometown fans back to life and pulled the Bruins even 1:57 into the third, tucking in a loose puck after Brad Marchand’s shot bounced off Anderson.
After a review, however, the goal was wiped out when it was ruled Kuraly was guilty of goalie interference. The Bruins challenged the call to no avail. “We were climbing uphill when he took over and we made our way in”. “It’s too late now”. I’m still baffled as to what Claesson has to do to get into this team, clearly not a favourite with Guy Boucher. He was replaced by C Sean Kuraly, who played the first two games of the series.
As expected, mainstays like Tuukka Rask and Zdeno Chara did their part on the ice in the hard-fought series, but perhaps the biggest takeaway over the last few weeks was the play of Boston’s younger skaters – with players like Charlie McAvoy giving Boston plenty of reasons to be excited for the foreseeable future. Going to Boston Sunday makes no difference to me, in fact the Sens have played better in TD Garden, so that is a positive to take out of it. “It’s a good, competitive series”.
The Bruins made the playoffs for the first time in three seasons, rallying after firing the winningest coach in franchise history and the one that led them to the 2011 Stanley Cup title in 2011. “It just shows what a good character guy he is, how much he wants to be a player and be a good player for this club”.
“Right now, it definitely stings”, Senators defenseman Dion Phaneuf said of the loss. Its a dogfight and, right now, both teams are having the hardest fight that they can have. “Or they might get up and kill you, you know what I mean?” It’s disappointing, but we’ve got to move on. “That’s what we’re going to do”.
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Ottawa surrendered three power play goals in 16 chances against the Bruins for a success rate of 81.3 percent. Ottawa will get to play game 1 against NY on their home ice at the Canadian Tire Centre. David Pastrnak was on the doorstep and tucked the rebound into the corner of the net for his second goal of the playoffs at 8:40 of the second period.
