King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Canadiens beat Bruins in a Game 7 that isn't a classic, but is just one of three in two days. Plus: Victory riot decorum, please.

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April 22, 2008 | One of the best things in sports, an NHL Game 7. Monday night's Montreal Canadiens-Boston Bruins Game 7 didn't quite live up to the best of them, but it was loud and electric before the Habs took control in the second period on home ice. After that it was just loud.

Midway through the second period, Canadiens defenseman Mark Streit took a pass from Maxim Lapierre, benefited from Bruins captain Zdeno Chara playing the puck and not the man, and made a nifty move on goalie Tim Thomas. The goal gave the Canadiens a 2-0 lead and sent the Bell Centre into even more of a frenzy than it had already been in.

The Bruins had controlled the action early, but it was the home team that scored the only goal of the first period when Canadien Mike Komisarek's shot bounced off Bruin Petteri Nokelainen past a helpless Thomas. The Canadiens took control in the second.

Andrei Kostitsyn put the game and series away five minutes after Streit's goal, at 15:13 of the second period, by somehow getting a shot off in traffic in the slot, zipping it through the legs of defenseman Mark Stuart, who screened Thomas. All that remained at that point was for Montreal not to blow it. That may not have been as easy as it sounds. Boston had scored four third-period goals in each of the last two games, though it hadn't been down three in either.

The Canadiens, who had coughed up a 3-1 lead in the series, have never lost a series they led 3-1, which is one of those things they like to say on TV but means nothing to the current bunch. The last time the Canadiens even had a 3-1 series lead to lose was in the Eastern Conference finals in 1993. Precisely one current Canadien was on that team, Patrice Brisebois. Three others were rookies with other teams.

Well, it's still true. Montreal didn't blow it. Twenty-year-old rookie goaltender Carey Price, who let in all eight of those third-period goals in Games 5 and 6, nailed down the Game 7 shutout. Kostitsyn and his brother Sergei each added garbage-time goals for the old fraternal hat trick and a 5-0 victory.

The Habs went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1993, having dispatched the New York Islanders in Game 5 of that conference final. So there you go. Every time in the last 15 years that the Canadiens get a 3-1 lead in a series, they go on to win the Cup.

Next page: Two more Game 7s Tuesday. This is all right. Plus: Let's have some rioting decorum, please