First, Tim Thomas kicked out a shot by defenseman Dennis Seidenberg. Then, after the rebound boomed out to Chad LaRose, Thomas saw the forward wind up and power a shot over his left shoulder.
But did he see LaRose's shot cross the goal line? Hard to say.
"I was right there," said Thomas about the play late in the second period last night. "I knew that it really skirted the line. It all depends on the interpretation because of the way the puck was staying.
"I thought if they went strictly by an overhead camera, there would be no goal. If you go from another camera, there's a chance you can see air. But the puck hasn't completely crossed the red line. But that's from viewing it at the time. I still haven't seen a replay."
The Bruins got some life when video replay confirmed that the puck didn't cross the line. The goal would have given the Hurricanes a 3-0 lead with only a few ticks remaining in the second. But after the call was made - the initial on-ice ruling was no goal - the Bruins tried to regroup heading into the third.
"In your mind, you go back in the dressing room and say, 'We got a break here. Let's take advantage of it,' " said coach Claude Julien. "The third period, if we had played three periods like the third period, there's no doubt it would have been a different type of game."
While LaRose's goal didn't count, it underscored the Bruins' fatal flaw from last night: carelessness with the puck. The Bruins were on the power play, but Patrice Bergeron passed the puck to an empty spot on the point, triggering Carolina's breakout. Seidenberg, who had been serving a holding penalty, stepped out of the box and scurried off for the scoring chance that turned out not to count.
"We didn't get the start that we wanted," said Bergeron. "After that, I thought we got carried away a little bit and we didn't play our game. We didn't stick to the system. We didn't keep it simple and it cost us some turnovers there."
"We're benching him," Maurice joked before last night's game. "We're not playing him tonight."
Staal, Carolina's No. 1 center, was the focus of New Jersey's shutdown game in the previous series. Devils coach Brent Sutter deployed Colin White, his ace defensive defenseman, and checking-line center John Madden against Staal. The center responded with a seven-point series, including the winning goal in Game 7.
In Game 1, Staal saw a whole lot of Zdeno Chara and Aaron Ward and put only two pucks on goal. Last night, Maurice double-shifted Staal with Sergei Samsonov and Tuomo Ruutu, while also skating him with Ray Whitney and Erik Cole. Staal assisted on defenseman Joe Corvo's second-period goal, then scored an empty-netter in the third.
"There are four other people on the ice that need to be effective with Eric," Maurice said. "They found a way to be effective with Eric against a very strong five-man New Jersey defense they put out with Madden and White.
"Clearly Chara is in a different class of defenseman. He's world-class. We have to get to the other four guys who were on the ice with him, and Eric has to find a way to use the other four guys.
