Bruins Pound Flyers 7-3 in game 1 of seedlings of East

 David Krejci and Brad Marchand each a marked two goals, and the Boston Bruins took out their frustration of a bust is major playoff history with a 7-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday in game 1 of the Conference semi-final.

The hunted Bruins goalie Brian Boucher, taking a 5-1 lead in the second period. New round problem, even for the Flyers. Philadelphia has used two guards in three of its seven games of the first round against Buffalo.

For the second season, the Bruins to lead the Flyers to the second round. The Bruins led 3-0, a year ago, then the Flyers became the third NHL team to rally with four consecutive wins to win a series-of-seven.

Nathan Horton, Mark Recchi and Gregory Campbell also scored for Boston.

Game 2 is Monday in Philadelphia.

Since beating Montreal to advance to the second round, the Bruins have insisted that they would not be haunted by last year's epic collapse.

It is perhaps natural that Krejci was the star of Game 1.

Krejci watched Boston give the series from the sidelines after he was hit game 3 a year with a dislocated right wrist. He needed surgery and missed the rest of the series.

He lost no time to help the quest for Boston to erase the bad memories, marking a backhander off a rebound 1: 52 in. The objective foreshadows what is to come - Boston scored four of his five goals against Boucher on rebounds.

The Flyers have done little to help the butcher, who won the two games in relief against the Sabres, with a mediocre game from the net. But Boucher failed stop second chances often soft.

He was rocked for rookie Sergei Bobrovsky towards the end of the second period.

Tim Thomas, who rescued 93 percent of its shots in the first round, was robust in net for the Bruins.

Danny Briere scored his seventh of the playoffs, and James van Riesmsdyk and Mike Richards added goals for the Flyers.

Briere he attached to 1 for all, but Horton put the Bruins ahead for good with 36 seconds in the first period. Boucher made initial backup to a shot of the intestine, but Horton collects and shelled the puck off the coast of arms butcher for a 2-1 lead.

Recchi gave the Flyers start yet an another comeback with a goal 2: 33 in the second fast. It is a soft rebounder that Boucher slipped to as he followed behind him in the back of the net.

Krejci scored point and Marchand scored the rebound fourth with 2: 46 left in the second, a 5-1 lead. That is all for Boucher.

Boucher, winner of the seventh game of the Flyers, allowed five goals on 23 shots. Flyers coach Peter Laviolette new is forced to confront the weak link in the range. Bobrovszky won 28 games and started games 1 and 2 against Buffalo. He was replaced by Boucher in game 2 and has never played again.

Richards, Captain of the Flyers, busted a scoring slump with his first goal of the playoffs at the end of the third. His goal of playing to a 5-3.

Merchant quickly followed with his second goal for a 6-3 lead. Campbell completed the rout with 2: 21 left.

Perhaps that the Flyers should have attempted more boarding, hooking and asking because force same room did not help. Boston went 0-5 on the power play and extended their drought to 0 for 26 in the playoffs. The Bruins went to 0 for 21 against Canadians and became the first team to win a series of seven games without striking a power play goal.

LaViolette, said the day before game 1 he believes not in motion.

"I think in desperation," he said.

The Flyers have desperately needed once more.

Note: Boston won the season series 3-1. ... LaViolette was coach Assistant for the Bruins in 2000 - 2001. ... The Flyers are 15-20 in a series when they lose game 1.

Horton, Bruins join the seedlings, oust Canadiens in OT

"Just getting to the playoffs is all I was really thinking about. This has been a dream come true," said Horton, who never reached the postseason while spending the first six years of his career with Florida Panthers. "I'm really enjoying it. I'm enjoying it more every day."

Boston will open conference semifinals in Philadelphia on Saturday with a chance to avenge last year's epic collapse against the Flyers. The Bruins led that series 3-0 before Philadelphia came back to force a decisive game; in Game 7 in Boston, the Bruins led 3-0 before losing 4-3.

"I get at least until midnight before I've got to start thinking about that," said Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, who stopped 34 shots.

Horton scored on his only shot of the night off a pass from Milan Lucic, setting off a celebration on the Bruins bench and in the stands. It was Boston's third overtime win in the series, including Game 5 on Saturday night when Horton scored 9:03 into the second extra period.

"He's been saving it for seven years, right?" Bruins coach Claude Julien said with a smile. "So he had a lot of game-winning goals in him."

A year after reaching the conference finals, the Canadiens were eliminated by the Bruins for the second time in three years.

"We're disappointed with the end result but you have to give credit to the Bruins," Canadiens coach Jacques Martin said. "Yes, we did have some injuries. We missed some soldiers, but the ones that were dressed gave a really good effort."

Carey Price made 30 saves, and Yannick Weber, Tomas Plekanec and P.K. Subban scored for the Canadiens. Montreal erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 but never led in the game.

 Nathan Horton became the fifth player in the last 15 postseasons to score two OT goals within the same series.

Montreal won the last of its NHL record 23 Stanley Cup championships in 1993 -- the longest title drought in the history of hockey's most-decorated franchise.

"It's a tough trophy to win," Subban said. "I mean, you never know when it's your year. But this year is not going to be ours."

Johnny Boychuk and Mark Recchi scored in the first 5:33 to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead. But Weber made it 2-1 with a power-play goal in the first and Plekanec tied it in the second with an unassisted, short-handed goal.

After Chris Kelly scored with just under 10 minutes left to give Boston a 3-2 lead, Subban tied it in the final two minutes -- again on the power play.

The Bruins were 0 for 21 on the power play in the series.

But it doesn't matter.

The Canadiens won the first two games in Boston to swipe the home-ice advantage and put the Bruins into a hole they had never been able to recover from before. Boston was 0-26 in series after falling behind 0-2.

But the Bruins came back to win three straight -- including the first two in Montreal, and then Game 5 at home. The Habs won Game 6 on Tuesday night to force a seventh game in Boston.

The Bruins wasted another early lead on Wednesday, jumping out on a slap shot by Boychuk and a wrister by Recchi from the slot that beat Price on the stick side.

Martin took his timeout, and the Canadiens seemed to regroup.

After Michael Ryder was sent off for hooking, Weber scored a power-play goal by converting a cross-ice pass from Michael Cammalleri midway through the first.

Five minutes into the second, with the Canadiens down a man, Plekanec stole the puck from Recchi and broke in alone to wrist it past Thomas and tie it 2-2. But Kelly slid a rebound back under Price with 9:44 left in the third to put Boston back on top.

Montreal tied it after Patrice Bergeron was sent off for whacking James Wisniewski in the face with 2:37 left. The Canadiens set up the power play in the Boston zone and worked the puck around to Subban, who slapped it over Thomas' glove.

Game notes
Lucic was back in the game, one day after he was given a major for boarding and a game misconduct in Game 6. ... Canadiens center Jeff Halpern went to the ice after taking a shoulder from Andrew Ference in the corner with 11:30 left in the third. He was attended to by a trainer and helped off the ice, apparently woozy. ... TV showed Thomas and Price tapping each other with their sticks as they left the ice at the end of the second period.