01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, April 21, 2004

BY JOE McDONALD
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- Minutes after the Montreal Canadiens eliminated the Boston Bruins in the first round of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals for the second time in three years on Monday, Habs' owner George Gillett couldn't comprehend what he just witnessed.

"Unbelievable," he said. "Unbelievable. It's almost too much to believe. When you think of the odds the fellows overcame, the injuries, the odds of being down, 3-1. Amazing."

Gillett bought the Canadiens for $190 million three years ago. Was the investment worth it?

"That's about the last thing you think about," he said. "You think about character and teamwork. This is such a great group of young men."

As Montreal celebrated its Game 7 victory, just down the hall at the FleetCenter, the Bruins were in shock by the loss.

How in the name of all that is hockey could Boston be one game away from advancing in the Stanley Cup playoffs only to lose three straight games and see its season come to an end?

Kaput. Done. Finished.

The most promising Bruins' team in over a decade simply played not to lose, instead of playing to win. That was its downfall. Now, the Bruins will have at least six months to dwell on it.

"We had the lead (in the series)," said rookie goaltender Andrew Raycroft, [but] "we left it to chance in Game 7. It's disappointing. Just disappointing."

According to the Boston players, the series never should have made it to a Game 7. But, it did. The Bruins dominated the game but still lost. It came down to a fortunate bounce for the Canadiens and goal by Richard Zednik on the club's first shot, at 10:52, of the third period.

"Six-thousand times," said Raycroft about replaying the goal in his head. "But, you can't do anything about it. I played it exactly the way I wanted to play it. It goes off the net that way and that's the game. That's the unfortunate part sometimes."

Montreal's Alex Kovalev shot the puck from a bad angle off the side of the net. Ninety percent of the time the puck will ricochet to the backboards. Instead, it caromed out front to a wide-open Zednik.

"It's a tough way to end the season," said Raycroft. "You have to deal with it and it's going to go through my head a lot this summer. We knew it was going to be a hard-fought battle and a tight game. It was everything and more. It was the night we all expected. It's too bad we're on the wrong side."

After the Bruins dominated Game 1 of the series with a 3-0 shutout, the Canadiens outplayed Boston the rest of the way.

"I thought they really outplayed us in Game 1," said Montreal captain Saku Koivu. "But from there on, we were able to match their work ethic. We were able to get the puck deep and get more physical. We kind of kept it simple, and the longer the series went on, the more momentum we got. We were sleeping, but we woke up after the first game."

It's all in the numbers.

Montreal's top offensive line was the Alex Kovalev-Koivu-Zednik combination. For most of the series Canadiens coach Claude Julien matched that line against Boston's 700-pound line of Mike Knuble-Joe Thornton-Glen Murray.

The Canadiens' line combined for 22 points and a plus-17 rating compared to the Bruins' top line, which finished with a combined five points and a minus-13.

According to Kovalev, before Game 5, "everybody realized we're good enough to beat this team. Our first thought was to come back and tie the series. We had to stay patient and we did. And when the chances were there, we capitalized on them."

Sometimes it can be bad karma for a team to prepare for its next round, but that's exactly what the Canadiens did before their Game 7 trip to Boston on Sunday. Instead of packing for one day, the club packed for six days, in case it did win and needed to be in Tampa for the conference semifinals.

It just seemed after Game 1, that there was no way in the Canadiens' minds they were going to lose the series.

"We just kept going and going," said Zednik, who added an empty-netter in addition to his game-winner in Game 7. "And here we are."