Burrows, Canucks take major bite out of Bruins, edge Boston 3-2 in overtime
By The Nelson Daily Sports
Fourteen wins down, two to go.
Alex Burrows took a major league bite out of the Boston Bruins, scoring 11 seconds into overtime to lift the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-2 victory in game two of the Stanley Cup Final Saturday at the Rogers Centre.
Vancouver now leads the best-of-seven Cup series 2-0 with game three set for Monday in Boston. Game time is 5 p.m. PDT on CBC-TV.
Burrows, sent into the Boston zone on a quick pass from Daniel Sedin, faked a shot before circling the goal and slipping the puck into the vacant net before falling to the ice in jubliation.
“Danny (Sedin) made a great chip . . . I knew I had a step on (Zdeno Chara),” Burrows told CBC-TV after the game. “We did some pre-scouting on Tim Thomas and we know he likes to challenge.
“I wanted to fake a shot, go around and shoot right away. (Thomas) kind of tried to trip me a little bit because he knew I had the angle. I was just able to just wrap it, it was tight angle and I was just lucky it went in.”
The heroics of Burrows, finishing the game with three points, may not have happened had the NHL’s disciplinary committee decided to suspend the Canuck winger for his alleged bite of the finger of Patrice Bergeron during game one of the series.
Instead the league determined there was not enough evidence to suspend the Canuck winger, even though NHL senior vice-president of hockey operations Mike Murphy spoke to Burrows.
“Everybody who follows our team knows he’s a pretty big part of our team,” Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault told the media during the post-game press conference when asked about the significance of Burrows being in the lineup.
“He plays 5-on-5. He plays power play and kills penalties. He’s one of our go-to guys and again came up big . . .. I thought he was one of our better players and we need him to play that way.”
Burrows opened the scoring in the first period, surprising Thomas with a quick shot during the late stages of a power play.
Former Vancouver Giant Milan Lucic tied the game in the second before Kamloops native Mark Recchi game Boston its first lead of the series.
Boston finished the period out shooting the Canucks 14-10.
Vancouver took the play to the Bruins and at 9:37 of the period were rewarded when Burrows tapped the puck over to Daniel Sedin who snapped a shot past Thomas.
The Canucks were given an emotional lift with the return of centre Manny Malhotra.
Malhotra had been out of the lineup since suffering a severe eye injury March 16 against Colorado Avalanche.
“It was great, obviously,” Burrows explained when asked about his teammate. “Manny has worked so hard to get back into shape and be in the lineup with us.
“When his injury happened we were afraid for him and for his career too. Obviously it’s nice to see that he’s healthy, but competing with us, that’s even better.”
CUP NOTES: The goal by Alex Burrows was the second fastest in NHL history. Twenty-five years ago, Montreal’s Brian Skrudland scored just nine seconds into OT in Calgary to give the Canadiens a 3-2 win in Game 2 of the Final. Skrudland broke the mark of 11 seconds set in 1975 by the New York Islanders’ J.P. Parise in the third and deciding game of their preliminary-round series against the Rangers. . . .Both teams spent the night in Vancouver after the game, choosing to fly to Boston Sunday . . . .The Bruins have a tough task ahead of them as the record for a team falling behind 0-2 in the series is 4-42. . . . Manny Malhotra., playing 7:26 in the game, was 6-1 in the face off circle in game two. . . .Vancouver finished the game out shooting Boston 33-30 thanks to an 11-5 advantage in the third period.
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