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Habs shoot for two-game lead against Bruins

Sat 12th, April 2008

(Sports Network) - The top-seeded Montreal Canadiens will aim for a two-game edge in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals tonight, as they host the Boston Bruins in Game 2 at the Bell Centre.

Montreal continued where it left off in the regular season against the Bruins, as it notched a 4-1 decision in opener of this series Thursday night in Quebec.

The Canadiens dominated the season series with the Bruins this year, as they won all eight meetings and outscored their Northeast Division rivals by a 39-16 margin.

The regular-season series should usually be thrown out the window when it comes to the playoffs, but the way the Habs beat up on Boston this year cannot be ignored as Montreal had wins of 6-1, 7-4, and 8-2 against the Bruins.

Including the victory in Game 1, the Canadiens have won 12 straight and 19 of the last 22 encounters with Boston.

The Canadiens also hold a sizeable advantage in terms of all-time playoff meetings between the clubs. Montreal has taken 23 of the 30 postseason series between these old rivals and has also won the last two, beating the Bruins in the conference quarters in 2002 and 2004.

Tom Kostopoulos registered a goal and an assist to lead the Habs to the easy victory in the series opener.

Sergei Kostitsyn, Andrei Kostitsyn and Bryan Smolinski also scored for the top-seeded Canadiens.

Carey Price, a 20-year-old rookie, made 17 saves in his playoff debut.

Shane Hnidy provided the offense for the eighth-seeded Bruins, while Tim Thomas allowed four goals on 32 shots in defeat.

Montreal jumped out to a 1-0 lead 34 seconds into the contest, as Sergei Kostitsyn jammed home a rebound at the right side of the net. The Canadiens lit the lamp again less than two minutes later when Andrei Kostitsyn one-timed Tomas Plekanec's cross-ice pass from the right boards in behind Thomas.

The Bruins would cut the lead to 2-1 later in the first period, but that would be as close as Boston would get.

Montreal won the game despite going 0-for-5 on the power play. The Canadiens were easily the NHL's best team on the man advantage this season, as they scored on 24.1-percent of their power-play opportunities.

On the other hand, Boston's penalty-kill was one of the worst units in the league this year. The Bruins stopped just 78.6-percent of their opponents' power plays and finished 28th in the league on the penalty kill.

Boston went 0-for-3 on the power play in Game 1.

The Canadiens were 22-13-6 at the Bell Centre this season, while Boston was 20-13-8 as the visiting club.

After this evening's test the series will head to Boston as the Bruins are scheduled to host Sunday night's Game 3 meeting at TD Banknorth Garden.

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