Jumping at the chance

Savard always longed to beat Canadiens

It could not have been easy for Marc Savard, growing up outside Ottawa, loving everything about the Maple Leafs like most Ontario kids.

The Leafs were bad, often the laughingstock of the NHL, their fans sometimes shamed to the point that they would wear paper bags over their heads when they went to games at the old Maple Leaf Gardens. But that wasn't it. Not really. Savard knew his team, its few goods and many bads, and he loved the Blue and White anyway. His stuck with his guys, year after year, and he understood the pain and joy of pledging loyalty to the hometown sweater.

But what he couldn't understand was how his father always cheered for that other team, the Canadiens, the hated rival from that other province to the east.

"Because of my dad," said Savard, "it seemed I was always watching the Canadiens in the playoffs. So that makes this a little more special.

"This" was Savard's first career playoff goal, in only his third postseason game, and it came with 9:25 gone in overtime last night, handing the Bruins a 2-1 victory over the Canadiens in Game 3 of their best-seven-series. "This" was Savard, jumping off the Boston bench as the extra skater during a delayed penalty, stepping into what looked like a blind backhand feed from Dennis Wideman, and hammering it home for the win, cutting Montreal's series lead to 2-1 and snapping the seemingly endless string of losses to the team that wears the CH on the front of its sweater.

As the winning play began to unfurl, with left wing Peter Schaefer lugging the puck up the left wall, Savard was on the Boston bench. It wasn't his shift, but as it turned out, it was his time.

"I'm really proud of Schaef," said Savard. "He's had a tough go this year, and he's really playing well right now."

So well, in fact, that Schaefer remained poised and in full possession as ex-Bostonian Bryan Smolinski hacked his forearms as he carried the puck deep into the Boston zone. It was that hack that triggered a delayed penalty against Les Glorieux - that club that was always on the Savard family television - and sent Boston goalie Tim Thomas flying to the bench.

"Lightning Timmy," said Savard, his trademark sly, impish smile breaking out. "He did a great job getting to the bench."

As Thomas chugged up ice - the big, padded engine who could - Savard prepared to jump into the action. Schaefer kept possession, buying time on the wing.

"I don't have to yell," said Thomas, explaining what he was doing as he bolted out of his crease and toward the bench. "All I have to hope is that they'll open the door [to the bench], and then I'll get off."

Thomas at his doorstep, Savard jumped into the play, entering at the right wing as Schaefer kept possession.

"I was yelling, I wanted it," said Savard.

"Savvy," said Schaefer, "he always wants the puck."

Savard was on the ice for about five seconds when the puck began to make it his way, with a wide open right side of the net available. Wideman, skating low into the action from his spot on defense, intercepted the pass. A decade of playing in the league, a decade of waiting for this kind of play, and Savard would have to wait just a little bit longer. The fast-skating Wideman picked off the relay and, in a flash, slid a silky backhander over to Savard on the right side.

"That's what sold Price," said Savard, noting that Habs goalie Carey Price locked his focus on the middle of the ice, where Wideman made his quick pirouette. "I was yelling the whole time to Wides. I knew he saw me. I knew he was going to throw it to me, and . . . perfect pass."

Among the best young goalies in the game - if not the best young goalie in the game - Price rarely allows such space. He is a master of shutting down all "looks," especially anything low and along the ice. He is the classic butterfly goalie of today, refining the art ex-Habs great Patrick Roy made so popular some 20 years ago.

By the time the puck was making its way to Savard, finally, and perfectly, Thomas was on the bench, knowing well that he would be back in net if nothing came of the chance. At worst, he would be back on the beat, with the Bruins awarded a power play.

"I had a perfect view, the same straight line Savvy had," said Thomas. "When it came to him, I was there, saying, "Come on!"

In the recounting, Thomas brought both hands up around his face, mimicking how he implored Savard to get rid of the shot.

No encouragement needed. Wideman's feed was as if drawn on a coach's chalkboard, tape to tape, the sweet and velvety kind of feed the great Canadiens teams of old, the Flying Frenchmen, patented and manufactured as sure death to opponents through the years.

"Everyone knows I missed the last two weeks of the season," said Savard, sidelined March 22 when the Canadiens' Steve Begin cracked him across the back with a crosscheck. "Tough time to miss, because this is the time of the season when it gets faster out there, the speed picks up.

"My first game back [Game 1 of the series], I had no legs or wind. The second game was better, but I had to keep my shift short. Tonight, I was able to hold on the entire game."

Good to the last shift, and to the last shot. He waited an entire career to put a playoff goal into the net, and he had waited nearly his whole life to make one count against the Leafs' longtime rivals. His dad, no doubt, was watching . . . because, after all, it was the Canadiens.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com.