Unlikely hero lifts Bruins back to final
BOSTON – For those last seven minutes, a huge cleansing scream filled the inside of the TD Garden. It rattled off the stands. It rolled off the ceiling. It pierced eardrums and left stomachs clenched against its fury. It was a combination of love and elation but tinged nonetheless with the dread that something would go wrong, just as it has all those times before.
But when the end came and there was no great collapse, no trap door opening in the ice to let the Boston Bruins fall through, the 17,576 fans who roared and agonized all at once began to chant.
"We want the Cup!"
"We want the Cup!"
"Oh, you know we are the same way as all of them," said Bruins right winger Nathan Horton(notes) late Friday night, having written his name into the endless Boston sports scroll with the Game 7 goal that sent the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Finals with a 1-0 victory over Tampa Bay.
In this recent run of Boston sports teams shedding decades of old ghosts, the Bruins have been the one franchise denied. So many misses. So many blown chances. In a Garden where the banners hanging in the rafters are everything, that last Stanley Cup title from '72 looks old and worn. All around the arena's corridors hang pictures of Bruins players clutching the Cup, kissing it, caressing it. But they are wearing paisley shirts with wide collars and checkered sports jackets. Unkempt sideburns adorn their cheeks.
It has been a long time for the Bruins, a time that has eluded New England's hockey team in the most damning of ways, perhaps none worse than last year's blown 3-0 series lead against Philadelphia in the second round. And when Boston failed to close out this series with the Tampa Bay Lightning in Wednesday night's Game 6, it seemed everything was falling apart once more.
But it took a player who had never played for them before this year, one who didn't experience last spring's tumble, to slip through the Tampa Bay defense, tap the puck into the net and bring all of Massachusetts to its feet. Maybe this is the way it was supposed to be; the outsider swooping in to save everyone. In Game 6, Horton had made himself something of a villain when cameras appeared to capture him spraying water on fans in Tampa Bay in anger. This led to wild speculation that he would be suspended for Game 7 on Friday.
Horton smiled at the thought he might have missed Friday’s game when it was suggested to him. He said the league never called about the incident and nobody from the Bruins mentioned anything about a suspension.
"I don't know about that; it just felt great," he said.
Having played his career elsewhere, perhaps he could not have understood exactly what he brought the Bruins on Friday, or how much he saved their fans who would have been apoplectic had Boston not found a way to somehow win this series. Whether those suffering in the Garden or the bars outside appreciated the brilliance of this Game 7 is lost in the chaos that came after Horton's goal with 7:33 left in the last period. Boston pounded Tampa Bay's goalie Dwayne Roloson(notes) with 38 shots – some he must never have even seen – and yet nothing went in. Cheers for good shots soon turned to groans of disappointment and then shrieks of despair. Heartbreak couldn't happen again … could it?
Later, when looking back at the failures of recent seasons, Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara(notes) used the word "unfortunate."
As the third period wound down, it seemed like such an understatement.
Then came Horton.
He found it funny that people thought his goal came on a designed play. There was no design, no coordination. He rushed at the goal as hard as he could, saw the puck flying in and tapped it with his stick at the last moment. Roloson never stood a chance.
And the party was on.
The roar was so loud in those initial moments after Horton's goal that the stands shook. Some of those who have seen plenty of sporting events in this arena say it was the loudest they've ever heard it. As time ticked down, something was released by nearly everyone in the building.
"How long has it been since Boston was in the Finals?" Bruins goalie Tim Thomas(notes) asked.
Twenty-one years, he was told.
He nodded.
"It's been a long time for Boston," he said.
Next week brings Vancouver and the Stanley Cup Finals. The last ghost has not been vanquished. The Bruins still don't have a sixth championship banner to hang next to the one that reads "1972." Back then, when Bobby Orr patrolled the ice, it must have seemed like the Bruins would forever play for more titles. Then everything went dark – until Friday night, when it took a newcomer who might have been suspended were this not a Game 7, to take Boston four games from the Stanley Cup.
For a night, everything seemed possible in New England again.
