THE CANADIENS CLINCH A PLAYOFF SPOT WITH A O.T LOSE TO THE BRUINS

Last night in Boston, it had the intensity like a playoff game.Early in the second period,the Canadiens were down 3-1 but never gave up. They battled back with Goals from Matt D'Agostini and Matthieu Schenider to tie the game at 3-3. Matt D'Agostini added another late second period goal to put the Habs up 4-3. Boston was not done yet, late in the third Zdeno Chara tied it at 4 to send the game to O.T. In O.T Mark Recchi scored his second goal of the game to give the Boston Bruins a 5-4 O.T victory over the Canadiens. "We've had an up and down season but we kept it together tonight and stayed in the game," Canadiens coach Bob Gainey said. "Our major objective was to get into the playoffs."With the 5-4 O.T Lose to the Bruins, the Canadiens clinch a playoff spot.

"We had some tough times throughout the season and it hasn't been the easiest one," Canadiens captain Saku Koivu said. "But the way we've been playing, the way we've been handling everything that's gone on off the ice, what's happened the last month, I'm really proud of our team." Alex Kovalev also scored for Montreal in the O.T lose. In my opinion, the Bruins were just playing dirty. After a clean hit by Mike Komiserk, Bruins forward Lucic and defencemen Thortan just literly jumped Mike Komiserk.

It seems to me that the Bruins were trying to injure Mike Komiserk."When we do lose our cool and let our emotions get the best of us, we let them get those goals and grab the lead," Bruins forward Milan Lucic said. Lucic led all players with 18 penalty minutes and a 10 minute misconduct."I think they thought we were going to back away a bit but we came back out there and kept fighting," Canadiens wing Matt D'Agostini said. "That shows the character that we've got in this room and hopefully we can bring that in the next game and in the playoffs."With the win by the Rangers and the O.T lose by the Habs, it's offical the Panthers will not make the post season.The Canadiens next game will be on Saturday against the Penguins.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo