Four years later against a familiar first round opponent, Alex Kovalev nearly tempted fate again. Only this time a loss of discipline wound up with a much different result thanks to an assist from the refs.

The popular substitute Montreal Canadiens’ captain for the injured Saku Koivu atoned for a slashing penalty which allowed the Boston Bruins to force sudden death. It had been rookie David Krejci who notched his first NHL playoff goal with 10:26 left to help the Boston Bruins rally from a two-goal deficit.

Even to reach the overtime, they had to kill off a brief Montreal two-man advantage and then the first half of a high sticking double minor assessed to Shawn Thornton. On the verge of making it six-for-six on the vaunted NHL leaguse best Habs’ PP, the B’s then saw what had to be one of the most blatant late calls in playoff history with a BHL special phantom trip handed out to Jeremy Reich. Former Montreal bench boss Claude Julien couldn’t believe the call. Who could blame him?

Essentially, it handed the Canadiens Game Two when Kovalev bombed a slapper at the top of the left circle past a helpless Tim Thomas ending matters at 2:30 of OT. It came off a clean faceoff win by Tomas Plekanec in which AK27 switched sides and then used towering Bruins’ captain Zdeno Chara as a perfect screen to blast home his 39th career postseason goal sending a frantic sellout Habs’ crowd home happy. Their team now leads Boston in the 31st playoff series meeting 2-0 with Game Three slated for tomorrow night in Beantown.

For Kovalev, it was especially sweet after slashing Boston’s Aaron Ward during a reaction to the ex-Ranger’s extra rough with play continuing. It was a few years ago during sudden death when No.27 overreacted to a Glen Murray slash looking to draw a penalty with instead the Boston sniper winning that game to put Montreal in a 3-1 hole. He took plenty of criticism but made up for it by dominating the final three games along with teammates to comeback and win that series.

Fortunately for the talented Russian tonight, his loss of common sense didn’t cost his team a win. Kudos to my brother Justin for accurately predicting that Kovalev would indeed win it. He must’ve stated it at least four times.

He knew. The good news for the Habs is they’re now 10-0 against the B’s in command. For the Bruins, this was a very tough loss. Especially after fighting so hard in the third to claw back with goals from Peter Schaefer and Krejci to get to OT. Then to have the stripes decide it that way was even worse.

Boston outshot Montreal 11-4. Rookie Carey Price finished with 37 saves in winning his first NHL playoff OT game. Meanwhile, Thomas was excellent stopping 28 of 31 in a losing effort.

Can the Bruins bounceback from this? It’ll be a quick turnaround. We’ll see what they’re made of.