Canadiens bounce Bruins from playoffs

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens weren't content just to make the playoffs.

Yanic Perreault scored Montreal's second power-play goal of the game 39 seconds into the third period as the Canadiens beat the top-seeded Boston Bruins 2-1 Monday night to win their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series 4-2.

''A lot of people didn't believe in us, that we could make the playoffs,'' said goalie Jose Theodore, who stopped 34 shots. ''Then being able to be in the playoffs, we wanted to cause a surprise by beating Boston, and that's what we did.''

Theodore, who made 43 saves to lead Montreal to a 2-1 win in Game 5, made a huge pad save off Glen Murray's backhand on a Boston power play with just over 14 minutes remaining.

''Joe took two games, especially the last game,'' Canadiens center Doug Gilmour said. ''He made some big saves at key times for us.''

The soldout Molson Centre crowd of 21,273 cheered throughout the final minutes of the period and erupted into a loud ovation as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

''I think the people were glad to see us in the playoffs, but this team wants to do a little more,'' Perreault said. ''When you're in the playoffs, you never know what can happen.''

Montreal, which finished eighth in the East to make the playoffs for the first time in four years, moves on to the conference semifinals against third-seeded Carolina, which beat New Jersey in six games.

''They played really well the last couple of games to beat New Jersey,'' Theodore said. ''They're going to be ready, they're well-rested, but we're just happy right now. We're going to enjoy tonight and come back to work tomorrow.''

The game-winning goal was scored with Joe Thornton off for a double high-sticking penalty called late in the second period.

Perreault, who assisted on Donald Audette's tying goal in the first, put the Canadiens ahead when he put a shot in from the slot with only his right hand holding his stick. Perreault was tied up with Bruins forward Martin Lapointe, but managed to get the puck past goalie Byron Dafoe.

''I tried to use my stick and the strength in my right leg to push the puck toward the net, and lift it if I could into the top, on the blocker side,'' Perreault said. ''I was glad to see that puck go in.''

Montreal, outshot 35-18 in the game and 212-142 in the six contests, earned its first playoff series win since 1998 when the Canadiens beat Pittsburgh before being swept by Buffalo in the conference semifinals.

''Boston is one of the top teams in the league,'' Perreault said. ''It's not an easy team to play against. They've got some great skills and most of the games were tight. It could have gone either way tonight, but we were lucky that our special teams were pretty good tonight.''

The Canadiens won for the 22nd time in 29 playoff series against the Bruins. Boston, which had won its last four playoff series and five of six against Montreal, lost its first playoff series to the Canadiens since 1989.

''At certain times we outplayed them, at certain times we were better than them, but ultimately they won the series, so we can't say that we were better than them if they won the series,'' said Brian Rolston, who scored the Bruins' lone goal in the first.

The Bruins played the last two games of the series without defenseman Kyle McLaren, who was suspended for the remainder of the series after he checked Montreal's Richard Zednik in the head late in Game 4.

Zednik, knocked out of at least this series, greeted each of his teammates at the bench after the victory.

''They did a great job on our guys, especially tonight,'' Dafoe said. ''In the third period, it was scary -- we were trying to get me out of the net in the last two minutes and we couldn't get it out of our zone.

''That's not a knock on our guys -- our guys were working so hard, it's just a real compliment to what those guys do with the lead. You saw it down the stretch of the regular season, and that really groomed them for the playoffs.''

Avalanche 4, Kings 0

DENVER -- Patrick Roy stopped 23 shots and Colorado scored three goals in the second period as the Avalanche beat Los Angeles in a Game 7 rematch of last year.

Colorado reached the Western Conference semifinals for the fourth straight year and will face San Jose in the second round beginning Wednesday night in Denver.

Roy won his third straight Game 7 and extended his record of playoff shutouts to 21.

The Kings also rallied from a 3-1 deficit last year.

Los Angeles goalie Felix Potvin had consecutive shutouts to force a Game 7 last year, then gave up three goals in the third period of a 5-1 loss in the final game. He stopped 103 of 106 shots in Games 3-6 this year, but allowed three goals in the second period on Monday.

Chris Drury, Alex Tanguay, Steven Reinprecht and Adam Foote scored for Colorado.