Stung by two home-ice losses to the Edmonton Oilers, the Boston Bruins pulled out a couple of surprises to return to favor in the Stanley Cup Finals.
John Byce and Greg Johnston are hardly household names in the NHL. But Sunday night they were the entire attack force for Boston and the reason the Bruins are coming to life.Making rare appearances, Byce, a rookie, and the rarely used Johnston found the net in the first period, and Boston rode Andy Moog's splendid goaltending to a tense 2-1 victory over the Oilers in Game 3.
The Bruins thus finally got going in this best-of-seven series.
"If someone made up a list of players who would score tonight, Byce and I would not be on top of it," said Johnston, a right wing who was playing only his third game of the playoffs.
Byce, who signed a contract with the Bruins on April 6 after completing his final season at the NCAA champion University of Wisconsin, said he had a premonition that he would score in Sunday night's game, only his sixth in the playoffs.
"I had a dream today that I would score an easy goal," said Byce, whose dream came true in front of the Edmonton net just 10 seconds in the game.
Cam Neely picked up an Edmonton pass at the blue line and skated in 2-on-2 with Byce.
"He (Neely) got a nice backhand shot on goal and the rebound came right to me," Byce said. "I kind of had an open net to put it in."
That tied a record for the fastest goal at the start of a Stanley Cup final game. Edmonton's Glenn Anderson set the record in the 1988 blackout game between the Oilers and Bruins in Boston.
"I doesn't mean that much to me," Byce said. "It doesn't matter how fast it comes. I think we needed to get on top early and that was a key."
The Bruins solidified their lead on Johnston's goal at 15:04, which eventually turned into the game-winner. Johnston beat Bill Ranford with a shot from the left circle.
They never crawled out of it, although they did make things interesting at the end with a third-period goal by Esa Tikkanen.
"When you're a `slug,' you just hope for a break," Johnston said. "We slugs don't play much, so we have to make good use of our time."
Meanwhile, Moog was making good use of his time with 28 saves. Included was a strong performance in the third period when the Oilers outshot the Bruins 14-2.