TAKE OUT YOUR BROOM STICKS! THE HABS SWEEP AWAY THE BOLTS WITH A 4-3 WIN

          Earlier tonight in Montreal, the Canadiens were looking for their first sweep since 1993 with a win against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  2 minutes in, Weiss brought the puck into the attacking zone, muscled his way by one defender and the d-man in front of the net (Barbario) leaves his post and goes for a big hit and misses as Weiss centered the puck to Briere all alone in front and he scored! 1-0 Habs. Thats Brieres 51st career playoff goal. With under 5 to play in the first, Eller skated the puck up the left wing and slapped a shot past Lindback to make it 2-0 after 1. That shot just went under the glove of Lindback as it was in fact a stoppable shot. The Habs dominated period 1, outshooting Tampa 15 to 6. After much speculation, Lightning coach, Cooper decides to keep Lindback in the game. 4 minutes into the second, Habs on a powerplay, Emelin turned the puck over to Palat in front he went around the net and wrapped the puck in... Or was it? The ref waved it off and eventually called it a goal. The play was reviewed and even though there was no evidence that the puck crossed the line, the goal was allowed. 2-1. Less than a minute later, Gallagher came up the right wing and slapped a shot over the blocker of Lindback and made it 3-1.
 

          That was it for the goaltender as he gave up 3 goals on 18 shots. So in comes  Gudlevskis. No more goals were scored in the second as the Habs once again dominated the Bolts outshooting them 14 to 7, but Gudlevskis was holding them in. 3 minutes into the third, Hedman had the puck behind the Habs net and threw the puck off Price and in and the Bolts had life. 3 minutes later, Johnson scored to tie it. Therrien called a time out to settle the Montreal Canadiens down. After the time out, Gallagher had a breakaway and he was stopped by the rookie. As he continued to keep the Lightning in. Late in the third, after the refs missed a holding call on Bourinval, the man who was being held up (Paquette) tripped him and was sent to the box. The powerline of Vanek, Desharnais and Pacioretty came out. With 42 seconds to go Vaneks shot from the left wing was stopped and Pacioretty put home the rebound as the Habs took the 4-3 lead and that would be the final! 

            The Habs sweep their first series since 1993 and score 16 goals in the series, the most goals in a 7 game series since 1993. Every player on the Canadiens registered at least 1 point in all 4 games. Its no surprise that Tampa was eliminated especially since they played with 9 defensemen and 6 forwards. The Habs will play either Detroit or Boston in round 2. But until then they have more than a week off.

- Andrew Di Pardo