BOSTON - Claude Julien decided not to give his goalie a pep talk after a pratfall in the crease handed the Rangers a goal that had the potential to turn the series around.
Instead, the Bruins coach waited until after Tuukka Rask responded with 28 saves to help Boston beat New York 3-1 in Game 5 on Saturday and advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
“That’s what I told Tuukka at the end of the game, ‘You can start laughing now,’” Julien said after the Bruins followed their seven-game series against Toronto by avoiding a nail-biter against the Rangers.
“We probably played with fire in the first round and almost got burnt,” Julien said. “We knew we couldn’t let our guard down [against New York]. Because if we did, they would come right back at us.”
Gregory Campbell scored twice and recent call-up Torey Krug scored his fourth goal of the series for Boston, which will meet Pittsburgh for the right to play for the Stanley Cup. The Bruins reached the third round of the NHL playoffs for the second time since 1992.
The other was 2011, when the Bruins won the sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Tim Thomas was in goal then, and Rask’s playoff memories aren’t quite so fond. The 26-year-old Finn was the Bruins’ starter when they blew a 3-0 lead in the 2010 East semifinals against Philadelphia, giving up a 3-0 lead in Game 7 as the Flyers advanced.
Boston was up 3-0 in the second-round series against New York this year, with a 2-0 lead in Game 4 when Rask tripped on a rut in the crease and flailed at a slow-moving puck as it rolled over the line. The Rangers went on to win 4-3 in overtime, forcing the series back to Boston for a fifth game.
“We wanted to make sure we ended this series - for all the right reasons,” including rest for players who went to overtime in Game 7 against Toronto, Julien said. “It also gives Tuukka the opportunity to laugh about that goal.”
Rask made sure there wouldn’t be another collapse, stopping Ryan Callahan on a breakaway with just under 10 minutes to play. Callahan split the defense and went to his backhand, but Rask turned it away with the blocker on his right arm.
“As a goalie, you expect to make one or two big saves. And today it happened,” Rask said. “I didn’t feel bad about myself after Game 4; obviously, there was a little screwup there with that goal. But I didn’t let that bother me, and I felt like I played a decent game after that.
“Coming in today, I just wanted to be rock solid back there, and give our team a chance to win the game.”
Campbell broke a 1-1 tie in the second period, then added an empty-netter with 51 seconds left to clinch it after Henrik Lundqvist was pulled for an extra skater.
Lundqvist made 29 savesand Dan Girardi scored for the Rangers, who lost to New Jersey in last year’s East finals.
“I expected more from us, and I hoped for more,” Lundqvist said. “Right now, it’s just an empty feeling, and disappointment. Some years you don’t really have a chance to go that far in the playoffs, you just battle hard. I think this year, we had a pretty good team, but there were a few games when we didn’t reach our top level. When you play a team like Boston, it’s going to be tough to beat them.”BLACKHAWKS 4, RED WINGS 1
CHICAGO - Jonathan Toews and Andrew Shaw scored power-play goals in the second period, and Chicago avoided elimination with a victory over Detroit in Game 5 of the second-round playoff series.
Shaw added his third career playoff goal in the third as the Blackhawks stopped the Red Wings’ three-game winning streak by creating chaos in front of Jimmy Howard, who had shut down Chicago’s attack while moving Detroit to the brink of the Western Conference finals.
With the sellout crowd chanting “Howard! Ho-ward!” in an attempt to shake him, the standout goalie made 41 saves in another solid performance. But the Blackhawks created enough quality chances that he simply couldn’t stop all of them.
Bryan Bickell scored the first goal of the game and Corey Crawford had 25 stops for Chicago, which managed only two goals during its first three-game losing streak of the season.
Daniel Cleary scored for the second straight game for Detroit, which will have another chance to close out the top-seeded Blackhawks in Game 6 on Monday night. That will be at home, too, where the Red Wings are 4-1 in this postseason.
Detroit trailed 1-0 before Cleary completed a strong rush during a 4-on-4 stretch in the second period, beating Crawford from a tough angle on the left side for his fourth goal of the postseason. Henrik Zetterberg set up the score by throwing the puck across the crease while Brendan Smith was streaking toward the net.
Back came the Blackhawks, who responded with two of their best power plays in weeks. Upset with how Chicago had been playing with the man advantage, coach Joel Quenneville tried all sorts of combinations in practice to no avail.
He finally got what he wanted when the Blackhawks needed it the most.
First, Shaw had a perfect tip on Duncan Keith’s slap shot to make it 2-1 at 13:08. Then Justin Abdelkader received his second penalty, this one for cross checking, and Toews wristed a shot off Howard’s facemask and into the upper right corner.
It was Toews’ first playoff goal since April 21, 2012, at Phoenix, snapping a scoreless postseason drought of 10 games. It also came after he appeared frustrated while committing three penalties in the second period of Game 4.
The captain was mobbed by his teammates after he skated to the boards, and the crowd of 22,014 roared its approval.
Chicago got off to a good start with a 4-1 victory in Game 1 of the series, but it had been all Detroit since that opening win. The Red Wings turned up the pressure on defense and Howard had an amazing 86 stops on 88 shots over three straight wins that pushed the Blackhawks to the edge of an early postseason exit.
At a glance NHL PLAYOFFS CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS Best-of-7 x-if necessary TUESDAY, MAY 21 Boston 2, NY Rangers 1 San Jose 2, Los Angeles 1 WEDNESDAY, MAY 22 Pittsburgh 7, Ottawa 3 THURSDAY’S GAMES NY Rangers 4, Boston 3, OT Detroit 2, Chicago 0 Los Angeles 3, San Jose 0 FRIDAY’S GAME Pittsburgh 6, Ottawa 2
Pittsburgh wins series 4-1 SATURDAY’S GAMES Boston 3, NY Rangers 1
Boston wins series 4-1 Chicago 4, Detroit 1
Detroit leads series 3-2 TODAY’S GAME All times Central Los Angeles at San Jose, 7 p.m.
MONDAY’S GAME Chicago at Detroit, 7 p.m.
TUESDAY’S GAME x-San Jose at Los Angeles, TBA WEDNESDAY’S GAME x-Detroit at Chicago, TBA
Sports, Pages 21 on 05/26/2013