BOSTON, MA - JUNE 08: Rich Peverley #49 of the Boston Bruins celebrates with his teammate Zdeno Chara #33 after he scored a goal in the first period against Roberto Luongo #1 of the Vancouver Canucks during Game Four of the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on June 8, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
In the first period, Rich Peverley opened the scoring on a breakaway shooting the puck between Roberto Luongo's five-hole to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. It was Peverley's 3rd goal of the playoffs.
In the second period, Michael Ryder scored his 7th goal of the playoffs on a shot that tipped by Canucks defenseman Edler and Luongo looked like he was staring down Edler after that goal. 2:18 later, Brad Marchand scored his 8th goal of the playoffs to make it 3-0 Bruins. That was great work by Marchand and Patrice Bergeron to score that goal.
In the third period, Peverley scored his 2nd goal of the game, his 4th goal of the playoffs to make it 4-0 Bruins. After that goal Luongo was pulled for Cory Schneider who played well.
Things got a little heated near the end. With 2:27 left in the period, Marchand got a tripping penalty as he tried to jump by and past Ehrhoff but it looked like he pulled him down with his glove. For some reason Daniel Sedin came skating at Marchand and it looked like he was going to hit Marchand up high. So Marchand ducked and Sedin went flying over the top of Marchand and down onto the ice. Keith Ballard came flying in with gloves off and they bear hugged each other and went down to the ice. Marchand was just protecting himself in that situation. What would you do when you see someone coming at you up high? Stay there and take the hit (possibly in the head) or try and get out of the way any way you can? Funny how Ehrhoff wanted no piece of Adam McQuaid and then when the refs got between them then Ehrhoff started talking. Victor Oreskovich then talked with McQuaid but he wanted no piece of McQuaid. Maybe he remembered what happened the last time they met up.
Then with 1:51 left in the period, Alex Burrows whacked Tim Thomas' stick out of his hand so Thomas gave a return whack to Burrows ankle. Burrows then went at it with Thomas and Dennis Seidenberg then came in and tackled Burrows down onto the ice.
Thomas had this to say about the incident:
"I thought I'd give him a little love tap," Thomas said. "Let them know that I know what you're doing, but I'm not going to let you do it forever. That's all that was. A typical battle."
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Tim Thomas made 38 saves to get his 3rd shutout of the playoffs. Thomas is now 14-8 with a 2.11 GAA and a .936 save percentage in the playoffs.
The Canucks led the game in shots 38-29 and faceoff wins 39-32. Both teams had 27 hits apiece.
Notes from the game
It was good to see Bobby Orr before the game waving the Bruins flag, which had Nathan Horton's #18 on it.
For the most part, Rich Peverley took the place of Horton on the first line, and he had 2 goals on 2 shots and +2. Claude Julien did try Ryder in that spot as well during the game.
Nathan Horton was in the building and gave Peverley the jacket after the game.
"When I personally got to see him in the locker room, you know, I was incredibly happy and it gave me a big boost," Bruins goalie Tim Thomas said. "He was there to pass the jacket on. We didn't pass the jacket on the last game with him gone. I think the team would have been happy leaving it with Horty for the rest of this series, but he wanted to give it away and keep the tradition going that we'd started."
"So actually he gave it to Peverley, the guy who replaced him on the line," Thomas added. "He was obviously great for us tonight. He got the first goal and the last goal. That first goal and the fourth goal are very important goals. We wouldn't have won without the way he played. I think he did a great job stepping into Horty's spot on the line. I'm very happy for Pevs, too."
"It was awesome," forward Shawn Thornton said. "He's such a good team guy. He does everything for us and he has all year. Everybody on this team loves him. He makes everyone around him feel better about themselves. I don't think I've ever met a more positive guy in the room. So for him to come in, the guys were pretty excited. I didn't even know he was here until he walked out to give the jacket. That was a pretty nice surprise."
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Patrice Bergeron had an assist, was +1, had 3 shots, 3 hits, and went 7-9 in faceoffs.
Zdeno Chara had an assist, was +2, had 12 PIMs (10-minute misconduct during the Burrows-Thomas scrum), and 4 hits.
David Krejci had 2 assists, was +2, had 3 shots and went 5-9 in faceoffs.
The Bruins improved to a 10-1 record when scoring first in the playoffs.
Onto the next one
The series is tied 2-2. Game 5 is on Friday at 8pm ET in Vancouver on NBC. Game 5 won't be easy as the Canucks will have last line change and home crowd advantage. It should be another good one. The Bruins need 2 more wins to bring the Cup to Boston.
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