Finally.

Okay Boston, sleep easy tonight. With some unbelievable overall playing from the Bruins, the series is now 2-1. The Bruins might not be ahead in the series, or even tied, but it buys the team and its fans exactly what it needs - something to hold on to. If they had lost tonight, everyone would've counted the Bruins out. This means that one more win, and they're as good as their counterparts are. This was an incredibly solid win for the Black and Gold.

The first period started, and right off of the bat, there was a different feel to the way both teams were playing. The Bruins were just playing hard, and really looked like they wanted it. They were pushing the Montreal skaters off of the puck, driving hard to the net, and at 16:49 in the first, it paid off in the form of a Krejci goal. Bergeron picked off the puck, and fed it right across the crease to Krejci who put it past a defenseless Price.

The next ten minutes was filled with a lot of physical play. That's one thing I picked up on in this game. Sure these teams don't like each other, but it was evident tonight. I also think that this being Chara's first time back in Montreal since his hit on Paccioretty had something to do with the physical play.

At 5:22 in the first, Horton knocks the puck in, and, just as it crosses the goal line, gets knocked out by the Habs defenders. Replays showed that it clearly passed the goal line before it was knocked out, and the situation room up in Toronto agreed. Goal was called, and Horton lifted his team to a 2-0 lead.

At the end of the first, Boychuk got hit in the corner of the ice behind Price. While he was held up by a Habs skater, Pouliot comes over and jumps off the ice, and pegs Boychuk up high by the head. Ferrence saw this and immediately jumped to Boychuk's defense, and dropped the gloves. This was just a dirty dirty hit, and I cannot believe he didn't get anything more than a 2 minute charging penalty.

Not two minutes into the 2nd period and the Bruins capitalized yet again. The puck went in behind Price, who went out to play it. As soon as he passed it, it went into the hands of the Bruins, and Peverley scores on an unguarded net.

Not much for the next few minutes, then at 12:57, the Habs cut the lead down to 2 goals on a beautiful goal by Kostitsyn. This was an impressive bit of stick handling which led to a backhanded attempt that got through Thomas' five hole just fractions of a second before he would've stopped it.

I noticed that this period was huge for the Bruins, sticking to their theme of great second periods this postseason. They were generating shot after shot after shot, and putting so much pressure on Price and Habs defensemen. Thomas FINALLY looks like he's giving it his 100%, and looked phenomenal out there. There was speculation before the game over whether or not Tukka Rask would get a start in net once this series, and before tonight, I was hoping for it. But after tonight, if Thomas can play like that or better, I want him there each game.

The 3rd period yielded trouble for the Black and Gold. The Montreal offense was getting their fair share of shots in right off the start, and Thomas was coming up huge. At 15:52, Plekanec comes in to the left of Thomas and scores a great goal off of a pretty spin move. The Habs were getting shot after shot in on Thomas, and, besides that goal, he was looking great.

With the score 3-2, and time winding down, this game was getting intense. Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley had to pretty much yell to get heard over the Montreal crowd. With about a minute and 30 left, physicality was getting intense, and a couple Habs skaters were blatantly diving to try and draw penalties. After a particularly obvious dive, Jack Edwards lost his collective shit and starting yelling GET UP!!!! at the downed Canadien.

At 1:06, Price sprinted to the bench, and with 25.6 seconds left in the 3rd, Mark Recchi scores an empty netter, and extends the life of the Bruins.

This, to me, was a quintessential NHL Playoff hockey game. The crowd going insane, the teams clearly giving this game EVERYTHING they've got to win, the physicality, the fight, the goals...it was a phenomenally played game.

To the downhearted Bruins fans - THIS was that light at the end of the tunnel, the silver lining, the glimmer of hope that you needed. Do not get down on this series. If the Black and Gold keeps up this playing style, their ticket to the Semifinals is written.