Rask Leads Bruins To Final

How do you spell victory? R-A-S-K.

When Boston won the Cup in 2011, goaltender Tim Thomas won the Conn Smythe trophy with a goaltending performance for the ages. Now the Bruins have made the Stanley Cup Final again thanks to their goaltending, but this time it's young Tuukka Rask leading the way. As hard as it may be to believe, Rask is having an even better post-season than Thomas did. The Boston netminder picked up the shutout last night, in a 1-0 victory and 4-0 series sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins. His stats are now an unbelievable 1.75 goals against average and .943 save percentage to go along with two shutouts.

But his most impressive feat so far? Shutting down Pittsburgh.


The high flying Penguins went into the Eastern Conference finals after feasting on the Islanders and Senators to score the most goals in the playoffs. Against Boston, they only scored two goals in four games. Rask has now stopped an incredible 158 of the last 160 shots against. If they gave out the Conn Smythe today, Rask would win it hands down.

To be fair, Rask can't take all the credit for the overwhelming victory. The defense led by Zdeno Chara was outstanding, constantly frustrating the Penguin's top stars with smothering defensive play. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, Jarome Iginla, Kris Letang...all pointless in the series. In fact, Malkin had a whopping 21 shots, but couldn't get one past Rask. They didn't get a sniff on the power play either, as the Bruins finished perfect on the penalty kill. Goaltender Tomas Vokoun was the only Penguin that actually seemed to show up, but even his heroics in game three and four weren't enough to match Rask and pull Pittsburgh back into the series.

The offensive depth came through for Boston too. Seven different players hit the back of the net to account for the Bruin's twelve goals in the series. Forward David Krejci continues to lead the way, picking up 4 points in the series to push his post-season leading total to 21. Selke nominee Patrice Bergeron also had 4 points, while Nathan Horton had 5. But they also got contributions from unlikely sources, such as Adam McQuaid, who scored the series winning (and only) goal in game four.

In short, it was domination. In every aspect of the game, Pittsburgh just couldn't match the level that Boston is currently playing at.

So now the Bruins advance and wait to see who they will play in the final, either Chicago or Los Angeles. One team flies on offense like the Penguins, the other smothers on defense like the Bruins. Both would be suitable match-ups but, after this dominating performance, Boston has to be considered the prohibitive favorite. Especially with Rask playing like the best goalie in the world.