If the Bruins were hoping to stick around for more than four games, they needed to come out with an overwhelming performance on Monday night.
Considering the outcome, they exceeded expectation.
Mark Recchi scored two goals and Boston lit the lamp eight times en route to an embarrassing 8-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 3 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals at TD Garden in Boston, MA.
Boston, which trails the series 2-1, was held scoreless through twenty minutes, but erupted for four goals in the third period and tacked on four more in the final period, all while giving up one goal.
Tim Thomas was outstanding between the pipes, recording 40 saves in sixty minutes. Boston was outshot, 41-38, and had a 50% power play conversion rate, scoring on two of their four opportunities.
Roberto Luongo, on the other hand, was downright terrible - allowing eight goals on 38 shots (.789 save percentage).
Andrew Ference got the scoring going, netting the game's first goal 11 seconds into the second period on assists from Rich Peverley and David Krejci.
Recchi scored his first goal on a power play 4:22 into the period, assisted by Michael Ryder and Ference. Recchi passed the puck to Peverley in front of the net, but the Canucks' Ryan Kesler tipped the puck into his own net.
Brad Marchand scored the game's third goal, shorthanded, at the 11:30 mark in the period. David Krejci found the back of the net at the 15:47 mark, putting Boston up 4-0.
Yet the Bruins weren't done, far from it in fact. Daniel Paille scored 11:38 into the period, marking the Bruins second shorthanded goal of the evening.
Vancouver was finally able to erase the shutout 13:53 into the third period, as Jannik Hansen scored on assists from Raffi Torres and Maxim Lapierre.
For good measure, the Bruins scored three more goals to close out the game - Recchi scored again at 17:39, Chris Kelly scored at 18:06 and Michael Ryder scored the Bruins second power play goal of the night at 19:29.
The game featured 125 penalty minutes, with the Bruins racking up 65 minutes in the penalty box.
Vancouver won 38 faceoffs and had 31 hits while the Bruins won 27 faceoffs and had 39 hits. Both teams finished with 11 blocked shots.
Boston will look to even the series when it hosts Vancouver in Game 4 on Wednesday.
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