The #7 seeded Boston Bruins have eliminated the #2 seed, the Florida Panthers in the first round of the AHL playoffs. It was an offensive series with a lot of goals and a lot of shots on net. Veteran netminder Dwayne Roloson was able to outplay the less experienced Corey Crawford in the Panthers net, which was key for the Bruins success in this series. Even though Roloson had a staggering 3.45 GAA, his Sv% was a solid .919. Crawford on the other hand had a horrendous 4.46 GAA with a less than impressive .875 Sv%, obviously not good enough.
The Bruins knew the Panthers had one weak (or weaker) link in net. And when the Boston forwards where able to deliver offense game in and game out, it was enough to advance to the next round. The final score for the seven game series looked like this:
G1 @ Fla: 4-1 Boston
G2 @ Fla: 4-2 Florida
G3 @ Bos: 3-2 Boston
G4 @ Bos: 8-6 Florida
G5 @ Fla: 5-2 Boston
G6 @ Bos: 5-4 Florida
G7 @ Fla: 9-2 Boston
The Bruins offense was lead by Rick Nash who put up an impressive 8 goals, 8 assists for 16 points. His linemate for the first couple of games, Ryan Callahan, also impressed with 7 goals, 7 assists for 14 points. He was moved to the 2nd line and continued to produce with his new linemates. This move was made to give the 2nd line a spark after they hadn't produced during the first three-four games of the series.
On defense a surprise was to see Andrej Meszaros being the top point producer with his 7 points. But it was even more surprising that the clubs top defenseman and best point producer during the regular season, Ryan Suter, only picked up a single assist during the seven games. He was however mainly used in a shutdown role with fellow d'man Mark Fayne as they had +7 (Fayne) and +6 (Suter) in the plus/minus column.
Boston Bruins 3 Stars in Round 1:
RICK NASH
8 goals + 8 assists = 16 points
37 shots
+10
2 GWG's
21.6 S%
RYAN CALLAHAN
7 goals + 7 assists = 14 points
29 shots
17 hits
+10
1 GWG
24.1 S%
DWAYNE ROLOSON
.919 Sv%
42 shots/game
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