Thomas celebrates Horton's goal/By S. Bradley

BOSTON – Nathan Horton scored the game-winning goal in double overtime tonight by doing what he’s paid a lot of money to do – going to the net and staying there.

But there was a lot that went into the play that lifted the Bruins to a 2-1 win over Montreal at TD Garden and a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Canadiens.

First there was Milan Lucic’s protection of the puck and Andrew Ference’s movement to get open at the left point. Lucic compared it to a “Stockton and Malone” pick-and-roll.

And then there was Ference’s shot that got through David Krejci’s screen onto Carey Price before Horton banged home the rebound.

Here’s a first-person account of the play the pushed the Bruins to the brink of advancing to the second round:

Milan Lucic: “I was protecting it and I was actually hoping whoever the left guy was there – whether it was [Zdeno Chara] or [Tomas Kaberle] or it happened to be [Ference] – would roll off me because the D-man kind of followed me up there. And if he wasn’t there, I would’ve just dumped it right back in and tried to get it behind the net. I knew I had it protected real well. It was great that [Ference] gave me that option and he made a great shot to create that rebound.”

Andrew Ference: “You know what, I was on the other side so Johnny [Boychuk] and I switched back on sides and [Lucic] had really good patience and just kind of attracted a lot of attention so it just kind of opened up a lane for me to put about a 20-kilometer-per-hour shot on net and, you know, those are the kinds of goals being scored, right? In overtime [the goals] aren’t pretty, banging away for the rebounds, so, it worked out. It’s good.”

Nathan Horton: “I saw the rebound, we had control of the puck, and I saw the rebound come out. It was like it’s in slow motion. It was just sitting there. I’ll tell you, it felt good to put that in the net. Obviously winning the game, it was a pretty special moment.”