Boston Offense Explodes in Game 3; Game 5 Forced Back in Vancouver

When the scene shifted to Boston last night for Game Three of the Stanley Cup Finals, it was a completely different story from the first two games of the Finals back in Vancouver. The one similarity between the three games so far in the finals has been there is a ton of physical play and after the whistle activities, which will be consistent the rest of the series, that's almost going to be a guarantee. The biggest change in game three from the first two where the Boston Bruins. The Bruin offense, which had a bit of trouble solving Roberto Luongo in Vancouver, was able to solve him and explode for eight goals in game three. If your a Boston fan, you were left holding you breath in the first period.

The game started the way, the first two had, with solid goaltending, and hard hitting. Game three had a different vibe to it. Things changed about five minutes into the hockey game when Vancouver defenseman Aaron Rome delivered this huge hit on Nathan Horton of Boston:


The was so devastating that Nathan Horton is now done for the rest of the playoffs. It was announced early this morning that Horton will miss the remainder of the finals due to the severe concussion that he suffered from this hit. Arron Rome, the guy who threw the check, has a meeting with the NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations to discuss disciplinary actions resulting from the play.

The first period went by without a goal being scored. But the check by Rome on Horton really light a fire under the Bruins as they got on the board first 11 seconds into the 2nd period on a great goal from Andrew Ference. Boston wasn't done in the middle period, connecting three more times in the frame. First came a powerplay goal from Mark Recchi at 4:22, then Brad Marchand scored a great shorthanded goal at 11:30, and to cap off the 4 goal period, David Krejci at the 15:47 mark.

So after 40 minutes of hockey Boston held a 4-0 lead. They would stretch the lead to 5-0 at the 11:38 mark of the 3rd period thanks to another shorthanded goal scored by Daniel Paille. Vancouver finally gets on the board at 13:53 thanks to Jannik Hansen, cutting the lead to 5-1. Boston would not get their collective foot off the gas pedal as they scored their final three goals on their final three shots. The final Boston goals came from Mark Recchi, Chris Kelly, and a powerplay goal from Michael Ryder. Tim Thomas stopped 40 of 41 Vancouver shots, while Roberto Luongo stopped 30 of 38 Boston shots.

Aside from the goal scoring, the highlight of the game had to be this hit from Tim Thomas on Henrik Sedin:


Tim Thomas has been known to do this in the past in games, but to see him do it on not only on one of the Canucks star players, but to do it in the Stanley Cup Finals shows the kind of player he is.

Now I will admit that Vancouver did come out and look flat in game three. If the Canucks want to bring the cup back to Canada, they have got to turn in a better performance in game four on Wednesday night. The Canucks I felt gave Boston too many chances in front of Luongo. As for Boston, this was a performance that was really needed. They had to show Vancouver that they weren't a pushover. Also I feel that the Rome hit on Horton really pissed off the Bruins. Boston came out wanting payback for the hit and they got it by embarrasing the Canucks. Now the big question is going to be going into game four, will the Canucks rebound or will Boston dominate and take back home ice? Only time will tell. Game Four is Wednesday Night at 8pm on Versus from TD Garden in Boston!