Music: {allcanada} Canadiens to rest well after sweeping Lightning

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

{allcanada} Canadiens to rest well after sweeping Lightning

Castle / Reflektor - Arcade Fire / Get Paid To Work From Home

Montreal (AFP) - Canada's only team in the National Hockey League playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens, became the first team to reach the second round, thanks to a first-round sweep of Tampa Bay.

No club from Canada has won the Stanley Cup since Montreal in 1993 and the Canadiens are the only team with a hope of ending the drought this year.

They now await the winner between Boston and Detroit, fellow members of the oldest NHL teams known as the "Original Six", and could have as much as a week off after taking their best-of-seven series with the Lightning in four games.

"We'll be well prepared, I can tell you that," Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. "As far as I'm concerned, we won the series but we haven't accomplished what we set out to accomplish. For me this was a step and we have another step to take."

Boston leads Detroit 2-1 in their first-round matchup.

Montreal closed the regular season with 11 wins in the last 14 starts and carried over the momentum into the playoffs.

"We ended the season with confidence. We have played good hockey the last six or seven weeks," Therrien said. "Confidence is a big factor. Our team was confident in the way we were playing.

"If you look all the games in the playoffs, it was always us that dictated the play. We were the more aggressive team in terms of scoring chances and shots. We were well prepared and played with a lot of confidence."

Montreal goaltender Carey Price won his first playoff series since 2008, when he was an NHL rookie.

"We played really well the entire series," Price said.

Lightning Bolt - Pearl Jam / Sycamore Row - John Grisham