Bruins Take Lead Over Canadiens in OT

<br>BOSTON (AP) _ Patrice Bergeron scored 1:26 into overtime Friday night to give the Bruins a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.

Saturday, April 10th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BOSTON (AP) _ Patrice Bergeron scored 1:26 into overtime Friday night to give the Bruins a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.

Bergeron can't remember when he stopped feeling like a rookie. He just knows it wasn't a difficult feeling to shake.

``I'm used to (the NHL) now. I'm used to the guys,'' he said. ``They help me so much. I feel like it's where I belong.''

Andrew Raycroft, who shut out the Canadiens 3-0 on Wednesday in his first NHL playoff game, stopped 25 shots in Game 2.

``In our dressing room, I don't know if anyone looks at him as a rookie. Both him and Andrew, they have a certain maturity level,'' Bruins coach Mike Sullivan said.

``(Bergeron) has done nothing but impress us all year long. From Day 1, he just raised eyebrows. He really understands the game for a guy his age. For most of us, it takes a couple hundred games to figure it out.''

In other playoff games Friday night, the Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars 5-2 to take a 2-0 lead in that Western Conference first-round series. The Calgary Flames even their series with the Vancouver Canucks at a game apiece by winning 2-1 on the road.

On Saturday, top seeds Detroit in the West and Tampa Bay in the East can take 2-0 leads at home over Nashville and the New York Islanders, respectively.

Philadelphia, which leads New Jersey 1-0, will host the Stanley Cup champions; San Jose, holding a 1-0 advantage, welcomes St. Louis; and Ottawa visits Toronto with a chance to take the opening two games on the road.

Two of the NHL's Original Six teams, the Bruins and Canadiens have a long-running animosity that, in its time, was at least the equal of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry that bedevils Boston these days. And this one is almost as one-sided: Montreal has won 23 Stanley Cups to five for Boston, and of the 29 playoff series between them, Montreal has won 22. That includes a first-round ouster two years ago after the Bruins finished the regular season with the conference's best record.

Boston is a similar favorite this year, earning the East's second seed and home-ice advantage for at least the first two rounds. And this time, the Bruins are making good use of it.

Michael Nylander scored Boston's first goal and set up Bergeron for the winner with a nice tap-pass in the neutral zone that sent him toward the net without breaking stride. Bergeron stick-handled and made a fake _ or maybe a stumble _ between the circles, then took a screened shot that went off Jose Theodore's glove before trickling into the net.

The 18-year-old Bergeron has been a part of three of the Bruins' five goals in the series.

``He's a 30-year-old in an 18-year-old's body,'' said Raycroft, who is only 23 himself. ``For him to come across the middle like that was a perfect play.''

Theodore made 17 saves, and Patrice Brisebois had the Canadiens' only goal. The series moves to Montreal for Games 3 and 4 Sunday and Tuesday.

``This was our best effort. We should be proud of ourselves the way we played,'' Montreal forward Alex Kovalev said. ``Now we have the home advantage and if we play like we did, we should be OK.''

Joe Thornton, who did not practice Thursday because of what the team will only describe as ``an upper body injury,'' played his regular shift, but did not figure in any of the scoring. The Bruins suffered a setback when forward Ted Donato broke his foot blocking a shot in the first period; he is expected to miss four weeks.

``We were undermanned,'' Sullivan said. ``The longer it went on, it would have been a challenge for us.''

The Bruins set an NHL record in the regular season with 30 overtime games, and this one headed that way early on.

With Nylander closing on the net, Bergeron crossed a pass to him and he easily beat Theodore 15:22 into the first period.

Montreal tied it on some crisp passing in the second period, just 33 seconds after Thornton was sent off for slashing, giving the Canadiens a two-man advantage. The goal ended a 95:54 scoreless drought in the series for Montreal.

Montreal had a chance to take the lead with about five minutes left in regulation, but Jan Bulis backhanded the first try over the net while Raycroft was out of position. After a scramble, Bulis had another shot, but he put this one into Raycroft's chest.

Avalanche 5, Stars 2

At Denver, Colorado's top line of Peter Forsberg, Alex Tanguay and Milan Hejduk combined for two goals and four assists, lifting the host Avalanche.

Forsberg and Tanguay scored for the second straight game and had an assist each, and Hejduk added two assists to give Colorado a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven-series. Joe Sakic also scored for the second straight game and Dan Hinote added a goal.

The Stars got goals from Mike Modano and Chris Therien.

Game 3 is Monday in Dallas, where the Stars were 26-7-8 this season.

Flames 2, Canucks 1

At Vancouver, Jarome Iginla and Matthew Lombardi scored 50 seconds apart in the first period and Miikka Kiprusoff made 25 saves as Calgary evened its first-round playoff series.

The Flames' first playoff win since 1995 gave them home-ice advantage as the series heads to Calgary for Games 3 and 4.

Markus Naslund scored and Dan Cloutier made 22 saves for the Canucks, who had won seven straight, six in the regular season.