Bruins react to Game 1 loss to Hurricanes
The Boston Bruins dropped game one of their first-round matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes by the score of 5-1.
It was a tight back and forth affair for the first 36 minutes of play until the Hurricanes potted two goals in the final four minutes of the second period. The Bruins were able to cut the lead to one early in the third but couldn't find the equalizer after that.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy commented on Hurricanes goaltender Antti Raanta's play early in the game:
"He's paid to play too, and he did a good job, and he held them in the game early on. It is a team ... that if you have the lead on, it's an easier game for us if we get the lead; they play better if they have it. They're made for that."
Raanta is the Hurricane's backup goalie, but he started game one as their starter Frederik Andersen was injured late in the regular season. Raanta was tremendous early on and all throughout game one, as the Bruins outshot Carolina 36-25 in the game, including 14 shots in the first period.
Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark allowed four goals on 24 shots against in the game one loss. He spoke after the game about how he felt about it:
"It wasn't that hard [the game], I thought the guys did a tremendous job, and it's going to come down to some lucky bounces here and there, and that's just hockey ... It [the crowd] was a little bit louder, we're playing for something now, something meaningful, so that's to be expected."
Carolina's first two goals were shots from the point. The first was a nice deflection by Seth Jarvis right in front of the Linus, and the second was a seeing-eye shot through traffic that Ullmark had no chance of seeing. Vincent Trocheck also scored a goal off the netminder's head from behind the goal line.
Taylor Hall scored the Bruins' lone goal in the game, and just a few minutes before the Hurricanes made it 3-1, Hall hit the post on a shot from the slot that almost tied the game. He commented on the play:
"What are you going to do, right? The game's done. It would have been nice to see that go in, but a couple of inches the other way, it doesn't even hit the post. It is what it is, that's the ebb and flow of a series, and you try and control momentum when you can."
The Boston Bruins knew what they were up against when they were matched up against the Carolina Hurricanes. Although the score of game one doesn't quite justify how close the game was, the Bruins have to be better.
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