Bruins’ Boychuk finally on target with game-winning goal

Boychuk celebrates/By S. Bradley

BOSTON — Sometimes it looks like Johnny Boychuk’s at an amusement park taking five shots for a quarter.

He loads up, fires, and then he tries again without much pause.

Unlike most carnival games, the NHL is not rigged to make you miss. Boychuk finally took advantage of that tonight and beat Philadelphia goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky 2:42 into the third period to break a 1-1 tie and send the Bruins on their way to a Game 4 victory that completed a sweep of the Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Flyers.

Boychuk one-timed a shot from the right point after a pass back by Michael Ryder. It might’ve hit someone in front or just curved as it beat Bobrovsky to the glove side high.

“The puck came back to me. It was kind of rolling, and I just shot it towards the net and I think it probably dipped a little bit or curved, did something,” said Boychuk, who for the night registered eight shot attempts but just three on goal.

Boychuk’s series was filled with shots that went wide or were blocked. His goal couldn’t have come at a better time because just seconds before he scored center Patrice Bergeron suffered an injury and left the game. He didn’t return.

“I didn’t really see him go off but after that it was kind of just, as soon as we scored, everybody, we just started to go again,” said Boychuk. “We needed that.”