Here’s a little time-travel package for you fans tonight. Let’s journey back to April 19th, 1990…the last season in which the Bruins made it to the Stanley Cup finals. Two nights prior, the #1 ranked Bruins finished off the Hartford Whalers (remember them?) in a hard fought seven-game series.
Then, on April 19th, they started round two against the arch-rival Canadiens. The result? Here’s the story from the April 20th edition of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (courtesy of Factiva).
Bruins get the jump, blank Montreal, 1-0
Sandy Burgin
20 April 1990
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
© 1990 Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
BOSTON - The ghosts of playoffs past may have been there, but the calm, cool and collected Boston Bruins paid little attention to them as they beat the Montreal Canadiens, 1-0, last night before a sellout crowd of 14,448 here at the Boston Garden.
Dave Poulin provided the only goal of the game on a power play late in the second period and goalie Andy Moog made that stand up, posting his first career playoff shutout as the B’s grabbed a 1-0 lead in the Adams Division final.
The best-of-seven series will resume tomorrow at the Garden, 7:05 p.m., before switching to Montreal for Games 3 and 4 Monday and Wednesday.
“If there was a time we could have beaten the Bruins, it was probably tonight,” said Montreal coach Pat Burns. “We had them right there. Now it’s going to be tough.”
“A game like tonight can’t help but give us more confidence going into the next game,” said B’s captain Ray Bourque, who was back patroling the blue line with nary a trace of his injured hip. “There was an awful lot of pressure on us to win tonight and we responded to that very well.”
“I can’t say enough for the composure and poise we showed in that third period,” said B’s coach Mike Milbury. “We were able to keep an attack going while taking care of business in our own end. A 1-0 lead can be the toughest lead to protect. There is such a fine line between the offense and defense. You’ve got to strike the right balance.
“Our power play was a little sloppy at the beginning, but we put it together and got that one goal that we needed,” said Milbury.
Asked if Poulin was the Bruins new Mr. April, Milbury replied, “we still got half a month left. But no question, he’s been a big force out there.”
Poulin probably deserved double credit for the game’s first and only goal. He drew a holding call on Montreal’s Brian Skrudland at 16:11 of the second period, giving the B’s their fourth power play of the period. Earlier they had enjoyed a 5-on-3 advantage for 39 seconds, but couldn’t capitalize. This time would be different.
Garry Galley, a new father, passed to Bourque at the point and Bourque let go a shot which Canadiens goalie Patrick Roy got a pad on as he was falling down. Poulin was there for the rebound, however, and he lifted a soft backhander over the sprawling Roy for a 1-0 lead at 17:37. It was Poulin’s fifth goal of the playoffs.
While the official scorer gave assists to both Randy Burridge and Dave Christian, it was Bourque and Galley that did the set-up work.
After being outshot 9-5 in the first period, the Bruins, who were on the power play for a total of 6:47 in the second, put 15 shots on Roy while the Canadiens managed only six on Moog. Sparked by Poulin’s goal, the Bruins almost made it 2-0 in the last minute of the period, but Roy got his right pad on a Bob Gould shot.
Moog thwarted two Montreal breakaways during the first 40- minutes, first stopping Guy Carbonneau four minutes into the game, then denying Skurdland in the second period.
Early in the third period it was Moog’s best friend - the goal post - that bailed him out on a snap shot by 50-goal scorer Stephane Richer.
“I had the luck going with me tonight,” said Moog. “If that shot (by Richer) goes in, we’re probably still playing now. It hit the post and I was able to get my leg on the rebound and cover up. I was in the right place at the right time.
“I think I had a lot of help defenseman-wise, forward-wise and goalpost-wise,” said Moog. “It’s not often you win a 1-0 game and usually you need some luck and I had that tonight.
“I think what you saw tonight will be the trademark of this series, where good defense will beat the offense,” said Moog, who faced just 20 shots while his counterpart Roy faced 28.
“I’ve been on the losing side of a 1-0 game in the playoffs, so it’s nice to see the flip side,” said Moog.
“Andy is obviously heating up at the appropriate time,” said Milbury. “He was terrific there. I can’t remember a 1-0 game, but I think there was a 2-1 game in Montreal when Mats Naslund scored with 50 seconds in the fifth and final game of a series.”
Ah, those playoffs ghosts. Milbury’s memory was a little foggy, the Bruins lost that game he talked about but it was 1-0 and, yes, Naslund scored.
Naslund, however, didn’t play last night as he was nursing a pulled groin injury. Two other Montreal defenseman Mathieu Schneider (bruised shoulder) and Petr Svoboda (flu) were also sidelined, but the Canadiens did get a lift with the return of their Norris Trophy winner Chris Chelios.
Chelios missed the last 21 regular season games and all six playoff games with the Sabres.
“When you take six or seven penalties like we did, one of them is eventually going to hurt you,” said Montreal coach Burns, “and one finally did.”
Ahhhh, memories of Dave Poulin, Randy Burridge and Dave Christian. Back when this team was a force to be reckoned with.
I had to do a little digging to find out the 1-0 game that Milbury was referring to, but it appears to be from the 1st round of the 1984-85 playoffs.
