Canadiens Vs. Bruins, Game 7: Boston Leads After First Period

The Boston Bruins have been the better team through the first period at home, but thanks to a bad penalty, the Montreal Canadiens are only down by one goal when they should probably be down by more. The Bruins have out-hit their opponents by a considerable margin while creating more quality shots, though total shots are even, and they're winning the faceoff battle as well. However, Montreal has a power play goal, and as a result, they're still very much in the game.

Johnny Boychuk scored the first goal of the game, taking a wrist shot off a pass from Brad Marchand to score less than four minutes into the game. It looked like Carey Price could have done a great deal more to make the save, but Patrice Bergeron, who got the second assist on the play, did well to get in front of the net and screen Price.

The Bruins doubled their lead just a couple of minutes later, aided by some poor defending by Montreal. During a sequence where the entire Montreal team had plenty of opportunities to clear the puck out of their zone, with Scott Gomez being the biggest offender, they failed to get it out of their zone as Andrew Ference was able to poke the puck back to Mark Recchi, who was waiting at the blue line. Recchi was completely uncovered and able to take an uncontested shot, beating Price over his shoulder, blocker side.

Boston gave a goal back, though, after gifting Montreal a power play when Michael Ryder was caught for hookingTomas Plekanec. Rushing in undetected on the weak side, Yannick Weber picked up a great pass from Michael Cammalleri and beat Tim Thomas on his glove side.