No. 1 Star: Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins
Thomas played spectacularly making 33 saves, keeping the Bruins in the game and allowed the only goal of the game as the Canucks took the opening game of the Stanley Cup 1-0. One of Thomas' 33 saves came on a Jannik Hansen breakaway chance early in the third period:
No. 2 Star: Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks
Under siege in the first and third periods, Luongo managed 36 saves for his third shutout of the playoffs and matched Thomas save-for-save as he won for the sixth time in seven games.
No. 3 Star: Raffi Torres, Vancouver Canucks
A penalty-fest through two periods that turned into an icing fest in the third was saved, somewhat, by Torres netting the winner with 19 seconds remaining in regulation to put the Canucks three games from winning their first Cup:
Honorable mention: Hansen and Ryan Kesler made two terrific plays to help set up Torres' winner ... Alex Edler blocked five shots for the Canucks ... Johnny Boychuk was credited with eight hits ... Dan Hamhuis apparently took hip-check lessons from Keith Ballard as Milan Lucic found out:
Did you know? The Canucks hadn't gone into the third period of a scoreless playoff game this spring. Boston had done it three previous times. (AP)
Dishonorable mention: Hamhuis left the game in the second period with a leg injury and did not return ... There were 13 penalties called in the first two periods, but zero in the third ... Will Alex Burrows receive any sort of punishment from the NHL for biting the finger of Patrice Bergeron during a scrum at the end of the first period?
Conn Smythe Watch:1. Ryan Kesler, Vancouver Canucks; 2. Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins; 3. Henrik Sedin, Vancouver Canucks; 4. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins; 5. Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks; 6. Kevin Bieksa, Vancouver Canucks; 7. Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins; 8. David Krejci, Boston Bruins; 9. Daniel Sedin, Vancouver Canucks; 10. Nathan Horton, Boston Bruins.