Bruins’ play was a tight fit

In the first period of Game 3 Thursday night, the two Lightning players the Bruins least wanted to see with a scoring opportunity — Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier — broke out for a two-on-one rush.

At the same time, St. Louis and Lecavalier spotted the one Bruin they didn’t want to stare down during the odd-man chance: Zdeno Chara.

“I noticed those two guys were coming at me,’’ Chara said. “At that time, you try and be in the right position and have your stick in the right place.’’

St. Louis, breaking down the left wing, tried to hit Lecavalier with a dish to set up a one-timer for his centerman. But with a quick flick of his 65-inch Easton, Chara busted up the play to snuff out what would be one of the Lightning’s best scoring chances of the night.

“I’m glad I had the stick where I had it,’’ Chara said. “Those guys are pretty good. If you give them too many of those outnumbered situations, they’re going to make some plays. You’ve got to be careful not to give them too much of those.’’

The early sequence in the Bruins’ 2-0 win was hard to overlook for several reasons. First, it was a textbook read-and-react play by the Norris Trophy candidate. Second, had Chara not made the play, Lecavalier would have launched a Grade-A laser to possibly tie the game at 1.

“[Chara] covers a little bit more area than most guys,’’ Adam McQuaid said with a smile. “He made a great read. Great job. Chances like that can be momentum-changers in games. They can be the difference. It was a great play by him.’’

In hindsight, the rush was most memorable because it was rarer than beef tartare. In Games 1 and 2, when the Lightning ripped up the Bruins for five goals on each night, the Tam pa forwards pulled away for rush after rush.

In Game 3, with the Bruins going on lockdown, the dangerous Lightning attackers had little room to breathe in the offensive zone.

“We all did a good job as a group as far as not giving them outnumbered situations, making sure we didn’t get caught down low,’’ said Bruins coach Claude Julien. “I thought our guys reacted well. By not giving those outnumbered situations, we’re also able to have a real effective forecheck going on. I really like the way our guys were focusing and how they read off each other.’’

Neither Julien nor Tampa Bay counterpart Guy Boucher liked the way their clubs performed defensively in Games 1 and 2. In the Bruins’ 5-2 loss in Game 1, defensive mistakes led to three goals in 85 seconds. A stickless Dennis Seidenberg kicked a rebound to Sean Bergenheim’s blade. A rotten forecheck and soft netminding by Tim Thomas allowed Brett Clark to dangle through three zones and score on a sharp-angle backhander. Seidenberg’s ill-advised decision to regroup and throw a hinge pass to Tomas Kaberle led to a cough-up by the ex-Leaf and an easy tap-in for Teddy Purcell.

Boucher noted that in their 6-5 loss Tuesday, the Lightning racked up more scoring chances in one game than they had all season. All those looks meant squat after Dwayne Roloson was chased following 40 minutes of run-and-gun action.

In Game 3, the Bruins rolled out a near-perfect defensive performance. Thomas stopped all 31 shots, but he gave proper credit to his teammates for limiting Tampa’s sniffs. Leading the charge was Chara, who played his best game of the series. In 28:27 of ice time, Chara squared off mostly against Tampa’s newly formed No. 1 line of Purcell, Lecavalier, and St. Louis. Seidenberg, Chara’s right-hand man, helped neutralize Tampa’s top-line attack.

It was the first time this series that Boucher paired Lecavalier and St. Louis. In the first two games, Steven Stamkos had centered St. Louis and Ryan Malone. By putting Lecavalier and St. Louis together, it made Julien’s job of matching Chara against the pair a little easier.

But that also required Boston’s second defensive pairing of Andrew Ference and Johnny Boychuk to be thorough against Tampa’s second line of Stamkos between Malone and Simon Gagne. Stamkos had four shots. Malone landed two. Gagne, a Bruins killer as a Flyer last year, was ghost-like in recording just a single shot.

Even Kaberle, one of Game 1’s goats, looked like a defense-first defenseman. Kaberle tightened up in Game 2. He was even better in Game 3, blocking a team-high three shots. Kaberle played only 12:41, of which 3:16 was on the power play. But by simplifying his approach, Kaberle made the most of his even-strength workload.

“I think he’s relaxed a little bit, which has given him some confidence in his game,’’ Julien said. “I think the last two games, he’s been a better player. He’s passing. He’s more poised. He’s a little bit more aggressive. And he’s not sitting on his heels. And I think that’s made a big difference in his game. We say it almost every day when we talk about players: It’s about confidence. That word confidence plays big.’’

It was no small bonus that Patrice Bergeron returned for Game 3 and played his usual two-way game. Bergeron won 18 of 28 faceoffs, leading the charge in the Bruins’ 57 percent success rate on the draw. When you have the puck, you’re on the attack, not on defense. For Game 4 today, the Bruins would like little to change.

Bruins get off to a flying start

By the end of Game 1, a 7-3 affair, the Bruins had exposed the Flyers yesterday as a club that barely had a pulse, let alone one that was ready for the second round of the playoffs.

“Everything’s got to change,’’ said Philadelphia coach Peter Laviolette. “Everything’s got to improve.’’

Yet for a brief window in the second period, the Flyers could have jumped back in the game. With the Bruins holding a 3-1 lead, Brad Marchand was penalized for slashing Ville Leino.

The Bruins killed off the penalty, but 39 seconds later, they went a man down once more. This time, Johnny Boychuk was directed to the penalty box for high-sticking Nikolay Zherdev on a backhanded follow-through of a clearing pass.

Once more, the Bruins buckled down and killed the penalty.

“Overall, they did a great job,’’ said Bruins coach Claude Julien, whose charges nullified four of five power plays. “At that time of the game, it’s so important that you kill those.

“You don’t want to let them back into it. Had they scored, it might have been a different game in the third period.

“I liked the job our penalty killers did. Not only did they do a good job in our own end, we controlled the puck pretty well when we had it. Whenever we had the opportunity, those guys made sure they made it all the way down the ice.’’

During the first kill, James van Riemsdyk and Mike Richards had sniffs at the goal. But Tim Thomas kept his net clear, making 14 of his 31 saves in the second period.

Thomas also got help from Zdeno Chara. The captain chased down van Riemsdyk after a stretch pass and got his stick on the winger’s blade to bust up a scoring chance.

Then on the second kill, the Bruins continued to execute their game plan. When Kimmo Timonen wound up from the point and let a slapper rip, Gregory Campbell hit the deck and blocked the defenseman’s shot.

The hockey gods rewarded the Bruins for their consecutive kills. Less than a minute after Boychuk stepped out of the box, the Bruins scored the winning goal.

David Krejci won an offensive-zone faceoff against Blair Betts, pulling the puck back to Adam McQuaid at the right point. Krejci then plowed to the front of the net. As McQuaid floated a puck on goal, Krejci was in the perfect position to tip the wobbler past Brian Boucher at 15:26 of the second, making it 4-1.

“I thought we did a pretty good job on our PK,’’ Patrice Bergeron said. “They have a lot of firepower. We’ve got to find a way to kill it. I thought we were pretty aggressive, and it helped.’’

The Bruins’ penalty-killing efforts, like most components of their game, exhibited attention to detail. Preparation and execution. And a killer instinct.

“Great game,’’ said Nathan Horton. “Great way to start.’’

When the Flyers tried to rally, the Bruins kicked the door shut in their faces. When the Bruins scored one goal, that wasn’t enough. When Boucher was on the ropes and exhibiting mental weakness, the Bruins connected with a final haymaker to put the goalie on the mat.

At 17:14 of the second period, after Marchand tucked in a short-range rebound of Andrew Ference’s point shot, Laviolette had seen enough. As he has already in the playoffs and as so many other Flyers coaches before him, Laviolette turned to his second choice.

Sergei Bobrovsky came in to relieve Boucher, only to allow two more goals in the third period.

As inconsistent as Boucher and Bobrovsky turned out to be, both had little relief from their let-’em-in defense.

Marchand and Krejci potted two goals apiece. Horton, Mark Recchi, and Campbell added point-blank strikes.

“The way we played in front of our goaltender, we as a team deserve all the responsibility,’’ said Laviolette.

Perhaps the most satisfying part of the win was how the Bruins’ No. 1 line floored the Flyers. Krejci, Horton, and Milan Lucic were coming off a nearly flat-line performance against Montreal.

Yes, Horton scored a pair of overtime winners, but for the most part, Hal Gill and P.K. Subban, along with the Canadiens’ first line of Mike Cammalleri, Tomas Plekanec, and Andrei Kostitsyn, aimed their crosshairs directly on Krejci & Co.

“I don’t want to talk about it,’’ Krejci said Friday when asked about the opening round, no doubt still haunted by the Canadiens’ smothering ways.

Yesterday, the first line exploded. Of the 11 shots they sent on goal, three went in.

“Montreal really paid a lot of attention to that line,’’ Julien said. “They really had some hard matchups against that line. They certainly did a great job.

“Montreal’s a great defensive team. That’s their strength. They put their best players against that line. They made it tough on them. But luckily we had some depth and other lines that came up big for us.’’

So far, the Flyers are paying for any remaining frustrations the first line might have had.