Bruins blank Canucks, win Stanley Cup

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By JoeHaggerty
CSNNE.com Bruins InsiderFollow@hackswithhaggs
VANCOUVERThe Bruins needed to do something neither team had done throughout the Stanley Cup Final.

They needed to win in the other teams building, and they did just that in a perfectly executed, gritty 4-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks that captured Game 7 and won Boston its first Stanley Cup in 39 years.

The championship is the sixth in franchise history, and the Bruins won it by becoming the first team in history to win three Game 7's in the same postseason.

It was clear there was something special in the air hours before the game when injured Nathan Horton appeared by the Bruins bench and doused Boston water from a team bottle all over the ice. That water seemed to bathe the Bruins in whatever mystical powers they needed to snap out of their offensive funk in Vancouver.

The young heart-and-soul assistant captain of the Bruins, Patrice Bergeron, potted a pair of goals in the first two periods and Brad Marchand added a wraparound special that Roberto Luongo couldnt hold back in the painted area. In fact Luongo allowed three goals on 13 Bruins shots in the first 40 minutes and looked every bit as shaky as he did during three awful games in Boston at TD Garden.

Tim Thomas finished the game with 37 saves and another playoff shutout.

The dagger for the Bruins came in the second period during Vancouvers first power play of the game on a Zdeno Chara tripping call. Bergeron managed to split through two Vancouver skaters and push a shorthanded breakaway shot past Luongo as the Canucks goalie failed to cover up the puck. Marchand ended up setting the Bruins franchise rookie record with 10 goals scored after his second period wraparound that Luongo couldnt smother.

Marchand added another goal -- an empty-netter -- late in the third period, which got the celebration started.

Joe Haggerty can be reached at jhaggerty@comcastsportsnet.com.Follow Joe on Twitter at http:twitter.comHackswithHaggs

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