Nathan Horton scored at 5:43 of overtime, lifting the third-seeded Boston Bruins to a 4-3 home victory over the sixth-seeded Montreal Canadiens in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series Wednesday.
After scoring the winning goal in double overtime in Game 5, Horton repeated his heroics by beating Carey Price to the glove side with a slap shot from the top of the slot.
Defenseman Johnny Boychuk, Mark Recchi and Chris Kelly also scored, blue-liner Andrew Ference notched two assists and Tim Thomas made 34 saves for the Bruins, who will take on the second-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in the conference semifinals.
Tomas Plekanec recorded a goal and an assist, Yannick Weber and defenseman P.K. Subban also tallied and Price stopped 30 shots for Montreal, which failed to overcome a 3-2 series deficit after accomplishing the feat twice last postseason.
Looking to win a playoff series after losing the first two games for the first time in 27 tries, the Bruins got off to a fast start as Boychuk's blast from the right point went just inside the right post at 3:31 of the first period. Recchi doubled the lead 2:02 later as he beat Price with a wrist shot from the high slot for his 57th career postseason goal.
Montreal got on the board at 9:49 when Weber put a shot from the right faceoff circle past Thomas during a power play.
Entering 0-for-19 in the series with the man advantage, Boston's woes reached a new low in the second period as the Canadiens tied the contest with a shorthanded tally. Recchi was unable to handle a pass from defenseman Dennis Seidenberg at the red line and coughed up the puck to Plekanec, who raced in alone on Thomas and banked a wrister off the left post and in at 5:50.
After Price stopped a shot by Ference that hit a leg on its way to the net, Kelly backhanded the rebound under the netminder at 9:44 of the third, giving the Bruins a 3-2 edge.
With its season less than two minutes away from ending, Montreal cashed in on another power play to pull even. Subban fired a one-timer from just above the left circle under the crossbar with 1:57 remaining, knotting the game.
The subject of jeers throughout the game, Subban then taunted the TD Garden crowd by using hand gestures to ask it why it suddenly became silent.