Boston’s barrage in 5-2 victory over Vancouver sets up Game 7

From Boston

The Stanley Cup finals again boomeranged from one coast to the other and one extreme to the other, returning to Vancouver for a seventh-game finale Wednesday that might make this series memorable for reasons better than the biting, taunting and smarmy hits by both teams.

A record-setting early barrage by the Boston Bruins in a 5-2 victory Monday chased Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo to the bench and put the Cup back in its packing case. The Bruins have never played a Game 7 in the Cup finals; the Canucks have never won the Cup. They reached this climactic moment after the Bruins made it six straight wins for the home team and outscored the Canucks, 17-3, in three games at TD Garden.

“It definitely doesn’t get any better than this,” Bruins winger Milan Lucic said. “You dream about going up and playing Game 7 in the Stanley Cup finals and here we are, in this situation.”

Conversely, the Canucks won all three games at Rogers Arena by a cumulative 5-3, including 1-0 shutouts by Luongo in Games 1 and 5. All they need is one more win to end a Cup drought for Canada-based teams that stretches back to 1993 and the Montreal Canadiens’ triumph over the Kings.

“You play a lot of games during the season to get home ice and this is where we are,” said Vancouver captain Henrik Sedin, who recorded his first point of the series with a power-play backhander 22 seconds into the third period. “We like our situation.”

The Bruins like their situation too. With 36 saves goaltender Tim Thomas tied the record for saves in one postseason with 761, matching the mark set by Kirk McLean for the Canucks in 1994. Thomas has faced 812 shots, eight from the record number McLean faced in 1994.

“I’m very happy to be here and very happy to have this opportunity,” said Thomas, who compiled a 1.68 goals-against average and .946 save percentage in Games 1, 2 and 5 at Vancouver but was outdone by Luongo’s 0.67 goals-against average and .979 save percentage.

“I’m going to try to embrace that opportunity and take the same attitude that I’ve taken throughout the whole playoffs. Hopefully that will get me through that one last game to get to the goal that we’ve been shooting for all year long.”

Brad Marchand (upper-right corner), Lucic (from the right circle), Andrew Ference (on a long blast) and Michael Ryder (redirection in front) triggered roars from the crowd at TD Garden by scoring the fastest four goals by one team in the Cup finals, in a span of four minutes and 14 seconds. David Krejci added a goal during a five-on-three advantage in the third period. The previous record for fastest four goals by one team was 5:29, set by Montreal against Detroit on March 31, 1956.

Henrik Sedin and Maxim Lapierre scored in the third for the Canucks, who lost winger Mason Raymond 20 seconds into the game as the result of a hit by Boston defenseman Johnny Boychuk. Raymond, bent over and facing the boards, was shoved by Boychuk and fell awkwardly. He was taken to a hospital for treatment of an undisclosed injury.

As sensational as Luongo has been in Vancouver, he was shaky in Boston, where he had a goals-against average of 8.05 and save percentage of .773. He was pulled and replaced by Cory Schneider on Monday after allowing three goals on eight shots.

“They came out flying and got some goals and I didn’t make enough key saves to weather the storm early,” he said.

Teammate Daniel Sedin wouldn’t allow Luongo to take responsibility for the loss.

“Enough of the blame. It’s been said before but you lose as a team. We can’t start blaming each other,” Sedin said. “It’s a Game 7 and we’re playing at home and that’s where we want to be.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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