ShareThisNot that they ever thought it would be easy, but the Carolina Hurricanes shouldn't have been surprised by what happened Sunday night.
They were on the other end of it in their previous series, when the Hurricanes were the team facing elimination against an opponent with another chance to close them out.
Sunday, the Boston Bruins were in that position, and for the first time in this series, they produced the kind of last-chance effort the Hurricanes have been bringing (with one glaring exception) since that Game 6 win over the New Jersey Devils.
After dropping three straight, the Bruins won easily in Game 5, a 4-0 win in a backs-against-the-wall performance that nonetheless still leaves their backs against the wall.
"This game wasn't that different from the last game in reverse," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. "Almost 2-to-1 in shots, 4-1, 4-0. One team got rolling, the other team didn't. They did a good job coming back and being ready to play, as we expected, and we have the same challenge ahead of us."
The Hurricanes head home now with two chances to put away the Bruins. They should take heed of what happened to the Devils, who had two chances to put away the Canes -- and didn't.
The Devils may have been lulled into complacency by Martin Brodeur's performance in Game 5, and the Hurricanes may have found their edge similarly dulled Sunday after comprehensively dominating the Bruins in three straight games.
That changed from the start in Game 5, when the Bruins finally played like the Bruins were expected to play, holding the Hurricanes without a shot for the first 11 minutes of the game, hemming the Hurricanes in their own end and taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
At that point, the way both teams were playing and the way the Bruins were feeding off their crowd, the Hurricanes might as well have fired up the 737 and headed home. It might have saved them Scott Walker for Game 6.
He reached over Matt Cullen's shoulder to punch Aaron Ward, prompting Bruins fans to litter the ice with rally towels and other garbage, summoning cops to defend the Carolina bench and invoking an instigator penalty in the final five minutes.
The shame of it was that Walker, who was only fined $2,500 Monday for the punch, was one of the best Carolina players on the ice, not that there was tremendous competition. That may have explained his frustration, or perhaps he felt the Bruins were getting a free pass from the officials.
On one dismal power play, Rod Brind'Amour tried to feed Jussi Jokinen in the slot. Not only was the pass in Jokinen's feet, Jokinen had no idea where it was. If that wasn't a sign, then Erik Cole's clearing attempt from his own end that carried into the netting at the far end of the rink was.
Still, if history is any guide, Boston's resurgence may be too little, too late. Of the 87 previous lower-seeded teams to take a 3-1 lead, only 11 failed to advance, and half of the winners needed six or seven games to finish the job.
The Bruins have been on both sides of the 3-1 deficit in recent years, without positive results. Last season, they were down 3-1 to the Montreal Canadiens and won two straight to force a Game 7 before bowing out.
In 2004, the Bruins were up 3-1 on Montreal but became the 20th team in NHL history to squander that lead. (The New York Rangers became the 21st, of 236, in the first round this season.)
This one didn't go how the Hurricanes would have liked, but they'll have their home crowd behind them Tuesday in Game 6, and they should be feeling a little more of an imperative to get the job done then.
The last thing the Hurricanes want is to have to come back to Boston for Game 7. After Sunday, they would just as soon not make the trip.
(Contact Luke DeCock at luke.decock@newsobserver.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C.
