For the second time in this playoff year, Horton provided the goal to clinch a game seven victory and propel the Bruins further into the quest for the Stanley Cup, his latest heroics providing the push into the Stanley Cup Final against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Bruin right winger was the only bear on the ice that could spoil another stellar performance from Tampa Bay's Dwayne Roloson, taking a quick pass to the front of the net from David Krejci and converting it into a goal (the only one of the night) with just seven minutes and change to go in the third period of the Game 7 showcase.
In a tightly played game that seemed to be destined for overtime, the Bruins finally found a way to make the Lightning pay for their much celebrated 1-3-1 defensive scheme, which in this case left too few defenders deep in their own end to take away a scoring opportunity that did not go unaccepted. The desperation slide across by Roloson had just too much ice to cover before the puck found the back of the net and an eruption blasted across the width and length of the TD Garden.It was a game that was unusual in many ways, the normally offensively proficient Lightning couldn't gain much in the way of scoring opportunities and what few they found were deftly turned aside by Tim Thomas in the Bruins net.
The game also featured nary a penalty minor or major, in the full sixty minutes of play. An anomaly in hockey these days and a situation that didn't go un-noticed off in the western distance in Vancouver.
The Vancouver Province columnist Tony Gallagher found it quite interesting that the Bruins never had to put their struggling penalty kill to the test, nor did their less than successful power play ever have to get a showing in the Eastern final. In post game comments the Lightning's captain Vincent Lecavalier also expressed a bit of frustration that perhaps a few fouls that should have been called never heard a whistle.
Putting aside Mr. Gallagher's grassy knoll theories for the moment, (though we imagine we may hear more of it before Wednesday's puck drop) the Bruins win of course provided for much joy in the Hub city, where a twenty one year absence from the NHL's season ending series has been a festering concern season after season.
Delivered finally from their own version of Dante's inferno, the Bruins fans are now set to take the lead in the sports fraternity of New England, equal too, if not slightly superior this spring to their fellow travellers in Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics colours.
The Lightning which had a remarkable run through their own playoff experience, simply seemed to run out of ways to win. They made too many turnovers in game seven, something that they had managed to avoid in previous game while their top players seemed out of synch at times, as Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, Steve Downie and Teddy Purcell could not connect in the ways we had seen previous in rounds one, two and previously in round three.
Give them credit for heart and determination (and in the case of Steven Stamkos the ability to play through pain and more than a little blood), but in this Game 7 they never seemed to be able to turn around the opportunities to clinch that their goaltender provided to them through the first 52 minutes of the game.
Still when the final horn went, it was the Lightning with the shocked look of disappointment on their faces in the handshake line and it was the Bruins who were on their way to the victory party and then back to work for one more series of hockey to come.
You can review the entire seven games of the Lightning / Bruins series from our HockeyNation archive here.
Game one of the Stanley Cup final takes place Wednesday in Vancouver, a series that brings much promise to the conclusion of the NHL season and the possibility that it could very well last right through until that final seventh game.
Who knows, with the way both the Bruins and Canucks found ways to add to the suspense in rounds one through three, we may even find that sixty minutes of game seven may not be enough.
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