MONTREAL – Thanks Rene Bourque, the Montreal Canadiens are still alive and breathing after a dominating win in Game 5 of the East Finals against the New York Rangers.
The Rangers received some good news with the return of Derek Stepan, who missed Game 4 after suffering a broken jaw. However, Tuesday night’s game belonged to Montreal.
With their backs against the wall, the Canadiens came out swinging and wasted little time getting on the board. Just under two minutes in, Alex Galchenyuk deflected a P.K Subban shot past Henrik Lundqvist to give the Canadiens the early 1-0 lead.
The Rangers answered midway through the period when Derek Stepan beat Dustin Tokarski with a wrist shot that Tokarski probably wanted back to tie the game at 1. However, the Canadiens answered right back less than two minutes later when Tomas Plekanec beat Lundqvist with a wrist shot that was not too different from Stepan’s to give the Canadiens a 2-1 lead.
Goals, Goals, Goals was the theme for the second period as the Canadiens added to their lead less than four minutes into the second period.
This time it was Max Pacioretty who beat Lundqvist to put the Canadiens ahead 3-1. Just a few minutes later, Rene Bourque eluded a Rangers defender and fired a wrist shot past Lundqvist to extend the Canadiens’ lead to 4-1. The fourth Canadiens goal would ultimately lead to an early exit for Lundqvist, who was pulled midway through the period and replaced by Cam Talbot.
Initially, the change sparked the Rangers and shortly after the goaltending change, with the Rangers on the power play, Rick Nash beat Tokarski from a difficult angle to cut the Canadiens lead to 4-2. Less than three minutes after that, Derek Stepan jumped on a loose puck and fired it past Tokarski for his second goal of the game to bring the Rangers to within a goal.
There were a few questionable penalties in Game 4 that many felt the Canadiens embellished a little excessively on. That trend continued in Game 5, although Tomas Plekanec was caught red handed after throwing his head back despite barely being grazed in the chest with a loose stick. Plekanec was called for diving and on the ensuing Rangers power play, Chris Kreider tipped Iin a Ryan McDonagh pass to tie the game at 4. It was the third Rangers goal in a span of 4:24.
Despite the Rangers’ resurgence, the Canadiens answered right back a minute and two seconds later. Canadiens’ forward Rene Bourque fired a wrist shot past Talbot just prior to being knocked down by a Rangers defender for his second goal of the game to put Montreal back on top 5-4.
Midway through the third period, Rene Bourque beat Talbot once again for his third goal of the game, which marked Bourque’s first career playoff hat trick. Midway through the period, things got interesting when Rangers defenseman John Moore leveled Montreal’s Dale Weise up high. The hit was eerily similar to Canadiens forward Brandon Prust’s hit on Rangers forward Derek Stepan that left Stepan with a broken jaw and resulted in a two-game suspension for Prust. Moore was assessed a five-minute major and a match penalty and the Canadiens were given an extended power play. Despite being helped off of the ice, Weise returned to the bench later in the period.
Moore will likely face supplementary discipline for his hit and could very well have played his last game of the season tonight.
The Rangers pulled their goalie with a little over four minutes left in the period. However, Montreal’s David Desharnais tapped the puck into the empty net to seal the 7-4 win and keep the Canadiens alive.
With the win, the Canadiens forced a Game 6, which will take place on Thursday night at 8 pm (on NBCSN) back in New York City. The Rangers will look to clinch the Eastern Conference Championship in front of the Madison Square Garden faithful while the Canadiens will be looking to force a seventh and deciding game back at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
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