WILMINGTON, Mass. (AP) – The Boston Bruins say they’ll shake off their first playoff defeat of 2009 just like they have forgotten the victories.

The Bruins, the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference, won their first five postseason games before dropping Game 2 of their conference semifinal series, 3-0, at home Sunday night to the Carolina Hurricanes to tie the series 1-1.

Games 3 and 4 are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday at Carolina.

Boston center Patrice Bergeron said his team must remember to forget.

“We’re not happy with our effort, but at the same time I guess we’ve got to take the good and learn from the not-so-good and go from there,” Bergeron said after the Bruins held a team meeting at Ristuccia Arena. “I mean, when we win games we sort of use that short memory where we’re already thinking about the next game (after a win). We’ve got to do the same thing again today.”

The Bruins were disappointed with how they played in the Game 2 loss but also in their 4-1 win in Game 1. Winger Mark Recchi said Boston is up to the challenge of trying to wrestle home-ice advantage back from the sixth-seeded Hurricanes.

“Guys are disappointed,” he said. “It’s not so much the loss. Sometimes you play well and you lose. We just didn’t play well. We didn’t play well in the first game. I think we’ve got to go down there to Carolina and take the momentum back. The guys here are disappointed, but I think we know that we haven’t competed very well. At this point and time, you’re going to have to.

“We’re going to go into a very loud building, a very energetic building and a place where they play very well, and we’re going to have to go take momentum back and do some things. That’s going to take a big, big effort on everybody’s part.”

The three goals allowed Sunday were the most the Bruins have surrendered in a playoff game this year. Carolina head coach Paul Maurice expects that Boston, which allowed the fewest number of goals in the league during the regular season, will revert to its stingy ways when the series resumes.

“They’re the best defensive team in our game,” he said on his team’s off day Monday. “Any cracks in that game will appear to them to be unusual. So they’ll be pretty darn tight when they come in here. They won’t be giving us a whole lot.”

Carolina goaltender Cam Ward gave the Bruins nothing in Game 2, making 36 saves to record his second playoff shutout. While giving Ward credit for his efforts, the Bruins felt like they let him off at times.

“Game 2 is done with. It’s behind us. We have to go up there and we know what we have to do,” said center Marc Savard. “We know we’ve got to get to those (dirty) areas and make him work for his saves, and if we do that we’ll get better results.”

Bergeron echoed those sentiments.

“I think we’re forcing plays instead of just keeping things simple. Sometimes we’re looking for the perfect goal,” said Bergeron, who is still in search of his first playoff goal. “We know that against a goalie like Ward, we need more traffic in front, we need the rebounds. And the same thing on the power play. So it doesn’t change. We just have to make sure we have more people in front instead of staying on the perimeter.”

AP-ES-05-04-09 1808EDT

Copy the Story Link