Grand moments
April 19th, 2004
A COMEBACK FOR THE AGES
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On April 19, 2004, the Eastern Conference’s seventh-place Canadiens stood poised on the brink of the first-ever comeback from a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven playoff series since the team’s founding in 1909.
Claude Julien’s squad had forced the seventh and deciding match in Boston with 5-4 and 5-2 victories in the two previous games.
The Canadiens made the most of the opportunity to lengthen their season. After 50 minutes of scoreless play, the trio of Saku Koivu, Richard Zednik and newcomer Alex Kovalev hit pay dirt, with Zednik getting his second goal of the postseason with assists from both linemates.
While Andrew Raycroft let one in, counterpart José Théodore stood tall in the Montreal net, turning back a dozen third period Bruins shots and making 32 saves en route to the first postseason shutout of his career. Zednik finished the evening’s scoring, potting his second into an empty net with eight seconds remaining.
With the Koivu-Kovalev-Zednik line combining for 24 points, the Canadiens moved on to the next round after erasing a 3-1 playoff series deficit for the first time in team history.