The Bruins finally looked like them old-selves in game 5 Sunday night playing a great game Bruins style. The Bruins won game 5 by the score of 4-0. The series is now 3-2 Hurricanes and game 6 will be on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm EST. The scoring summary for game 5 is below.
In the first period, at 14:48, Mark Recchi scored (2) a power-play goal assisted by Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman making it 1-0 Bruins. Just before the power-play Milan Lucic layed out Dennis Seidenberg with a huge hit which ignited the fans and the Bruins. Seidenberg then took a slashing penalty which was the power-play the Bruins scored on. At 18:36, Phil Kessel scored (5) assisted by Marc Savard and Milan Lucic, making it a 2-0 Bruins lead.
In the second period, at 4:40, Phil Kessel scored (6) assisted by Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara, making it 3-0 Bruins.
In the third period, at 12:21, Milan Lucic scored (2) assisted by Michael Ryder and Patrice Bergeron, making it 4-0 Bruins.
Tim Thomas made 19 saves on 19 shots against him, earning his first career playoff shutout. Cam Ward made 36 saves on 40 shots against him.
With the score being so lopsided, the third period got nasty. Shawn Thornton and Tim Conboy dropped the gloves and it was a one-sided fight with Thornton getting the decision. Later there was Mark Stuart dropping the gloves with Tim Conboy and Stuart getting the upper hand in that fight. Conboy went 0 for 2 in this game. Then next we had some cheapshot shit. Aaron Ward roughed up a Hurricanes player, I think it was Matt Cullen, with his famous push/shove with one arm. Scott Walker didn't like that, came over, dropped his gloves and sucker punched Aaron Ward who went down to the ice and looked hurt (scroll down to watch the video). Milan Lucic tried going after Walker but everyone including the linesmen got in there so nothing came of that. Walker got lots of penalties and was done for the night. Near the end of the game, Wallin and Chuck Kobasew had a cross checking match where both players got minors. At the end of the game, apparently Chad LaRose came out of the penalty box and went over to Lucic trying to start something but linesmen broke them up and Lucic got a 10-minute misconduct.
Aaron Ward is a huge part of the Bruins defense and if he is out for the next game or more, it's going to be tough for the Bruins. This is a big loss for the Bruins. From AP after the game on Aaron Ward:
It seems Paul Maurice thinks it's a joke what happened. Will he still be laughing if Walker is suspended for game 6? Anyways who knows if Walker will be suspended for game 6 or longer. If you watched the other games in the playoffs, with Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom elbowing Ducks' James Wisniewski in the head and Capitals' Alex Ovechkin's knee-on-knee hit on Penguins' Sergei Gonchar, both players were not suspended, so I wouldn't guarantee Walker will be suspended. But Walker has been known for losing his cool at times and doing stupid stuff like this and he has been suspended before, so who knows. And I look back at Lucic getting suspended for what he did to Montreal's Maxim Lapierre but I see these other incidents which are far worser and have caused injuries and no suspensions. The NHL can be a joke at times.
Response to TSN's Pierre Maguire saying Aaron Ward should be ready (on the TSN telecast), well you know hockey so you should know that Aaron Ward is not a fighter and is not going to drop the gloves. And why drop the gloves? It's 4-0 and the game is over. It's just a gutless cheapshot sucker punch by Scott Walker. I forgot to mention the cheap slash by waiver pick-up Jossi Jokinen on Zdeno Chara near the end of the second period. Chara looked to be in a lot of pain and Jokinen got no penalty for that cheap shot. Chara did come back a few minutes into the third period. I don't expect any suspension from this incident since Chara came back and the way the NHL is doing their discipline actions during the playoffs.
Update @ 2:10 AM
I just remembered, with the new rules about instigating, that any instigating penalties in the final 5 minutes of a game gets a player automatically suspended for a game, so Scott Walker will be suspended for the next game.
In the first period, at 14:48, Mark Recchi scored (2) a power-play goal assisted by Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman making it 1-0 Bruins. Just before the power-play Milan Lucic layed out Dennis Seidenberg with a huge hit which ignited the fans and the Bruins. Seidenberg then took a slashing penalty which was the power-play the Bruins scored on. At 18:36, Phil Kessel scored (5) assisted by Marc Savard and Milan Lucic, making it a 2-0 Bruins lead.
In the second period, at 4:40, Phil Kessel scored (6) assisted by Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara, making it 3-0 Bruins.
In the third period, at 12:21, Milan Lucic scored (2) assisted by Michael Ryder and Patrice Bergeron, making it 4-0 Bruins.
Tim Thomas made 19 saves on 19 shots against him, earning his first career playoff shutout. Cam Ward made 36 saves on 40 shots against him.
With the score being so lopsided, the third period got nasty. Shawn Thornton and Tim Conboy dropped the gloves and it was a one-sided fight with Thornton getting the decision. Later there was Mark Stuart dropping the gloves with Tim Conboy and Stuart getting the upper hand in that fight. Conboy went 0 for 2 in this game. Then next we had some cheapshot shit. Aaron Ward roughed up a Hurricanes player, I think it was Matt Cullen, with his famous push/shove with one arm. Scott Walker didn't like that, came over, dropped his gloves and sucker punched Aaron Ward who went down to the ice and looked hurt (scroll down to watch the video). Milan Lucic tried going after Walker but everyone including the linesmen got in there so nothing came of that. Walker got lots of penalties and was done for the night. Near the end of the game, Wallin and Chuck Kobasew had a cross checking match where both players got minors. At the end of the game, apparently Chad LaRose came out of the penalty box and went over to Lucic trying to start something but linesmen broke them up and Lucic got a 10-minute misconduct.
Aaron Ward is a huge part of the Bruins defense and if he is out for the next game or more, it's going to be tough for the Bruins. This is a big loss for the Bruins. From AP after the game on Aaron Ward:
BOSTON (AP) - Boston Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward left Sunday night's playoff game with what team doctors fear is a broken orbital bone after he was punched by Carolina's Scott Walker.
Bruins coach Claude Julien asked the NHL to look into the play, and complained about Jussi Jokinen's slash that sent Zdeno Chara to the locker room with less than a minute left in the second period.
"The slash on Zdeno is a cheap shot; we all know that. The Walker incident is not something they should be proud of," Julien said after Boston beat Carolina 4-0 in Game 5 to avoid elimination in the Eastern Conference semifinals. "Something like that is not what you want to see, your player put in that position. Hopefully the people in charge will see that play and decide what they want to do about it."
Ward left the game with 2:47 remaining after Walker punched him in the face. Walker was given a misconduct, a fighting major and an instigator penalty.
Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice laughed off the possible repercussions.
"Scott probably has sore knuckles," he said.
Asked whether there will be a fine, he added: "I may have to sell my truck."
Source
It seems Paul Maurice thinks it's a joke what happened. Will he still be laughing if Walker is suspended for game 6? Anyways who knows if Walker will be suspended for game 6 or longer. If you watched the other games in the playoffs, with Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom elbowing Ducks' James Wisniewski in the head and Capitals' Alex Ovechkin's knee-on-knee hit on Penguins' Sergei Gonchar, both players were not suspended, so I wouldn't guarantee Walker will be suspended. But Walker has been known for losing his cool at times and doing stupid stuff like this and he has been suspended before, so who knows. And I look back at Lucic getting suspended for what he did to Montreal's Maxim Lapierre but I see these other incidents which are far worser and have caused injuries and no suspensions. The NHL can be a joke at times.
Scott Walker sucker punches Aaron Ward
Response to TSN's Pierre Maguire saying Aaron Ward should be ready (on the TSN telecast), well you know hockey so you should know that Aaron Ward is not a fighter and is not going to drop the gloves. And why drop the gloves? It's 4-0 and the game is over. It's just a gutless cheapshot sucker punch by Scott Walker. I forgot to mention the cheap slash by waiver pick-up Jossi Jokinen on Zdeno Chara near the end of the second period. Chara looked to be in a lot of pain and Jokinen got no penalty for that cheap shot. Chara did come back a few minutes into the third period. I don't expect any suspension from this incident since Chara came back and the way the NHL is doing their discipline actions during the playoffs.
Update @ 2:10 AM
I just remembered, with the new rules about instigating, that any instigating penalties in the final 5 minutes of a game gets a player automatically suspended for a game, so Scott Walker will be suspended for the next game.
Comments
Thanks for the intelligent comment.
Update: Scott Walker was only fined and not suspended. Check out the new post.