NHL Playoffs Roundup : Montreal Starts Out With Win in Game 1

Goaltender Patrick Roy would rather not think about his unbeaten streak at the Montreal Forum, where the Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2, Monday night in Game 1 of the Adams Division final. Though he stretched his home unbeaten streak to 32 games, while making 26 saves to pace the Canadiens on Monday, he said of his streak, “I don’t think about that.” He remembers too well what happened after his team won the first game in last year’s division final.

The Canadiens won the Game 1 of last spring’s division final against the Bruins and lost the series, 4-1.

“We have to remember what happened last year,” Roy said.

The Bruins took the lead in a conservative first period, with only nine shots taken by either team. Rookie John Carter scored his first playoff goal with a 55-foot slap shot through Roy’s pads at 4:39.

Montreal’s Russ Courtnall tied the score, 1-1, at 3:42 on a delayed penalty against Boston. Courtnall came on the ice as a sixth attacker when Roy was lifted and beat Moog with a shot from the left circle. It was his third goal of the playoffs.

Mike Keane, also a rookie, broke the tie with 1:23 to go in the period, taking a perfect pass from behind the net by Bobby Smith and putting beating Moog as he skated across the crease.

Claude Lemieux made it 3-1 46 seconds into final period by knocking in Mike McPhee’s pass from short range.

Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 3--Rob Brown took Kevin Stevens’ pass from behind the net and scored from the slot with 6:34 remaining at Pittsburgh as the Penguins rallied to beat the Flyers in the opening game of the Patrick Division finals.

Trailing 3-1, the Penguins got goals from Dan Quinn and John Cullen during a 33-second span in the second period. They then relied on Tom Barrasso’s goaltending to earn their fifth consecutive playoff victory. The Penguins had failed to make the playoffs for six straight seasons.

Brown’s goal, his third of the playoffs, came after Flyer goaltender Ron Hextall made four spectacular saves earlier in the period to keep the Penguins from blowing the game open. The game marked the first playoff meeting between the cross-state rivals in their 22 years of existence.