Bruins in the Driver's Seat

On Monday night, the roller coaster ride that has been the Eastern Conference Finals continued, with the Lightning visiting the Bruins for Game Five.

The Lightning, going into the game, had a fair bit of momentum that coming into the game and made pretty good use of it early, putting some real pressure on the Bruins in the 1st.  An early goal saw the Lightning lead after one, but that would be all they would muster offensively.

The Bruins killed a couple of Nathan Horton penalties to start the 2nd period and that started the momentum swing for Boston, as Horton was able to take a one-timer pass off a faceoff play in the slot and tie the game up, propelling Boston to a big 2nd period.  They would add one more in the frame to take a 2-1 lead into the 3rd, holding on and tucking in a late empty-netter for the win and the series lead.  It wasn't quite the game I was expecting Boston to have, if they were to win it, but the story did play out like most of the ebb and flow in this series suggested it might.

Only two notable players in this game on Monday, Brad Marchand and Tim Thomas.  Marchand scored the winning goal closer to the end of the 2nd period, while Thomas made 33 saves for the win, some of which were excellent saves.

Overall Standings
Tryst'n'Grant was able to keep a 1-point lead in the standings, thanks to a Zdeno Chara assist on the winning goal on Sunday, but the Langdon River Dogs continued to pursue in this series, taking the lead down by a couple of points.

The top five teams remained the same after the game, but the gap from the money to just outside shrunk by a point, as three teams continue to chase Pucking Luck for that 5th and final money spot.