Ottawa v Boston 4-2 - The Ottawa
Senators finally beat the Boston
Bruins. Their reward for Sunday's victory is not having to face
the team that beat them four out of five times this season in the
first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Jean-Gabriel
Pageau broke a 2-2 tie on a rebound with 3:34 remaining in
regulation as the Senators beat Boston 4-2 and clinched the No. 7
seed in the Eastern Conference at TD Garden. Boston had won the
previous four meetings against Ottawa this season. With their win in
the game that was rescheduled because of the April 15 Boston Marathon
bombings, the Senators moved ahead of the New York Islanders and will
face the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. The
loss cost the Bruins their chance to win a third straight Northeast
Division title and earn the No. 2 seed in the East. Instead, the
Bruins will be the No. 4 seed and face the fifth-seeded Toronto Maple
Leafs in a best-of-seven series starting this week. The Bruins won
just two of their last nine games in the regular season (2-5-2). Now
they're hoping the postseason brings better results. Marc
Methot's shot from the left point went through traffic on Tuukka
Rask, who couldn't stop Pageau's rebound chance. Rask finished
with 18 saves. Robin
Lehner earned the win for Ottawa with 34 saves. Kyle
Turris sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 36.5 seconds
left. The Sens had not only lost their four previous matches with
Boston, but had lost all by just one goal and were outscored 9-6 in
the series. Now Alfredsson gets the matchup with Montreal he's wanted
in his lengthy career. The Bruins tied the game at 2 off the opening
faceoff in the third period. After Milan
Lucic's cross-ice pass, Dennis
Seidenberg skated to the top of the right circle and blasted a
slap shot past Lehner 14 seconds into the last session. However, for
the eighth time in their last nine games the Bruins failed to exceed
two goals. The Bruins' offense will have to improve if they're going
to make a deeper run than last season, when they lost to Washington
in the first round. With so much at stake in this final game of the
regular season, it was surprise that there was a playoff atmosphere.
The first period featured 22 combined shots on net (13 by the Bruins)
and 20 hits by both teams. The Senators scored the lone goal of the
session with some hard work in front of the net by Erik
Condra. After Condra dished the puck to Pageau in the slot, Rask
stopped Pageau's shot, but Condra fought his way to the front and
buried the rebound for a 1-0 lead at 16:59. It was Condra's first
goal in 29 games. Ottawa doubled its lead at 10:33 of the second
period. Jared Cowan scored his first goal of the season with a slap
shot from the blue line straight ahead through traffic and past Rask.
It took nearly 40 minutes of play for the Bruins to finally get on
the board. Rich
Peverley started the scoring play and ended it by skating the
puck out of the zone, dishing it to Wade
Redden at the red line and then scoring with a wrist shot from
the slot at 19:56 on the power play. Redden took a crushing hit along
the right wall from Methot to set up Peverley for the score that cut
the Senators' lead to 2-1.
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