Boston: Carey Price stopped 29 shots and Daniel Briere scored the insurance goal as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins 3-1 in game seven of their second round NHL play-off series.
Dale Weise and Max Pacioretty also scored while Briere added an assist for Montreal, who are 6-3 in game sevens with the Bruins.
“One thing you have to realise is respect was earned, whether you think it was or not, the Bruins have to respect us,” said Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban.
The Canadiens and Bruins have played more game sevens than any other rivalry in North American professional sports. The last time they met in game seven was the first round in 2011, when the Bruins won 4-3 in overtime en route to scoring their first Stanley Cup title since 1972.
In the other second round play-off contest on Wednesday, Jonathan Quick stopped 21 shots as the Los Angeles Kings snapped Anaheim’s three-game win streak with a 2-1 win to force game seven in their Western Conference showdown.
Price, who led Canada to a gold medal in the Sochi Winter Olympic hockey tournament earlier this year, is now 2-1 in game sevens.
He had a 1.91 goals against average and a .932 save percentage heading into Wednesday’s game.
Montreal will next face the New York Rangers in the league semi-finals, the first time since 1986 that the two Original Six franchises will battle for a spot in the Stanley Cup finals.
Veteran forward Jarome Iginla scored the only goal for the Bruins, who were the defending conference champions. Goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped 15-of-18 shots in the season-ending loss.
“Our goals were much, much higher than obviously finishing in the second round, so of course it is disappointing,” said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, who accidently kicked one of the Canadiens’ goals into his own net.
“I don’t know what happened. We fell behind constantly and it put us in a bad spot mentally, and it seemed to set us back a bit.”
It was the 34th play-off meeting between the teams, and Montreal have won 25.
