B's headed back home up 2-0
An overtime goal by Boston’s David Krejci propelled the Bruins to a comfortable 2-0 series lead against the Philadelphia Flyers as the series comes back to Boston Wednesday night.
After falling behind 2-0 early in the first period, the B’s were able to tie the game before the first 20 minutes had expired on goals by Chris Kelly and Brad Marchand. The game remained tied until the extra session when Krejci’s rocket ended it.
BRUINS POST GAME QUOTES:
May 2- Game 2
On if he knew David Krejci’s goal was in…
Not right off the bat. All I saw was the referee wave his hand that there was no goal. And it didn’t take us long to figure out that it had been in. So I felt pretty confident and it was nice to see us find a way to win.
On how important David Krejci is…
Well he’s capable of playing the way we’ve seen him on a consistent basis and I think he’s been really, I guess, motivated to play in this series, obviously with what happened to him last year. And he seems like a determined player. He’s playing hard, he’s playing well and obviously we need that kind of contribution from him and his line the way they have been. And it’s nice to see that line be a big part of our success.
On if he has an update on Adam McQuaid and how the defense stepped up when he went down…
First of all, Adam [McQuaid] is coming back home with us. He is on his way back and he has been to the hospital for further evaluation. And I don’t know the whole details of it, which we will probably share with you guys tomorrow if we can. But he’s coming back with us, so that’s a good sign in itself. Our D did a good job of stepping up and I know they really played a lot of their top four Ds, had a lot of ice time. And it looked like both teams had a really short bench tonight and you could tell in overtime the fatigue was setting in on both sides and it was a matter of will and desire. Somebody has to find a way to win and that’s the one thing we did well was we found a way to win. I felt they really came out strong in the second half of the second period and in the third period they really carried the play and the momentum had swung their way. And I thought we had to be better to win and in overtime we picked it up a little bit. And like I said, at the end of the night in the playoffs it’s about winning and finding ways to win and we did that. I’m proud of our guys.
On how Tim Thomas played tonight…
Yeah, if anything, he was by far the star of the game tonight. He made some outstanding saves, especially when they started coming at us. They had some unbelievable scoring chances, he stood stall and he made some great saves. And no doubt. If it’s not for Timmy [Tim Thomas] we might not be standing here tonight with a win. But that’s what goaltenders do for you in the playoffs and that’s what you like to see in order to certainly develop some confidence for your team. We know that the goaltender is there to bail you out and it certainly builds a lot of confidence and Tim [Thomas] has given us that.
On the fourth line playing in overtime…
That’s what we had to do. At one point you could see your bench was running out of gas and you have to go with your fourth line. They have to go out there and do the job and we’ve had confidence in them all year. It’s just a matter of them going out there and the one time I know they were out there against the other team’s top line. And there is no doubt we would have had a better scenario, but that’s where we were at that time of the game. And again, you have to believe in those guys and you have to do the job and they kept them off the score sheet. It’s things like that really help your team win and hopefully our bench got their second wind with a couple of shift from our fourth line and hopefully that was one of the reasons that we found a way to win.
On the 2-0 series lead…
Well you know what it’s a nice position to be in, especially when you win the first won on the road. There is no doubt it’s prefect scenario for the first two games on the road. But you guys keep bringing this up, we are not thinking about last year. We are thinking about, even half the players weren’t here last year so we can bring up whatever we want. Our goal here is to focus on what is happening this year. What happened last year is last year, so it really hasn’t been on our minds and whether we’ve learned from it, and I know what you mean, whether we’ve learned from that, absolutely we’ve learned from that. We are using those kind of things as a learning tool.
On what they learned from Montreal having a 2-0 series lead last round…
I think you know there is no doubt that they took a two-nothing lead and we never gave up on that. Teams that make it this far are teams that have a lot of character, we know they are not going to give up. We know what has happened with this team. They have a lot of character and they are capable of bouncing back just like they did in the last round. So we’re going to have to be ready for them and we need to understand that tonight’s game wasn’t good enough for our hockey club and we hold ourselves responsible for higher standards and we are going to have to be better.
On how Patrice Bergeron played…
What more can you say about Bergy [Patrice Bergeron]. To me, he’s arguably our best forward since the start of the playoffs. He comes to play every night and he plays hard, he plays hard at both ends. He has contributed offensively, but without a doubt he is a most reliable two-way player. And he leads by example and you can tell he ‘s a committed player this year and he’s also a good leader in the dressing room and he is leading by example on the ice. What you saw tonight is just indicative of how well he has been playing for us.
BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH CLAUDE JULIEN
On how much of an advantage it is to have Tuukka Rask as a backup option…
Well I think he’s ready to go, there’s no doubt about that. Bob [Essensa] has been around and he has been working with both him and [Anton] Khudobin very hard and keeping them sharp. And we know what he’s capable of doing, so that’s why everybody keeps talking about Tuukka [Rask] as well. We’re a team and he’s part of our hockey team, and maybe mentioning him is letting everyone know he’s not a forgotten man.
On if there are any lineup changes…
Not as we speak.
On the team’s reaction to the news that Osama bin Laden is dead…
Well that is something that went through my mind this morning, no doubt about that. When something major like that happens, I guess all the attention is thrown that way. But our guys this morning seemed fine, in the morning skate. I liked their focus and as you mentioned there are two teams. If one team is going through it, I’m sure the other team is as well. I think our guys are very professional and capable of separating the things that are important when the time comes. And everybody was obviously very interested in hearing what has happened in the last little while with that. But at the same time, I think it’s important for us to be ready for the game and the guys understand that.
On if there was a sense of accomplishment when Philadelphia made a goalie change…
I wouldn’t say so. They did that in the last round and they still managed to win the series so for us it’s, we know that’s something that has happened with this team since the first round. And you saw it happen last year as well and they still made it to the finals. So absolutely not, I don’t think we are hanging our hat on that. We are hanging our hat, I keep saying it, on how we are going to handle our own situation and that’s what is important right now.
KEVIN HARRIMAN
