(Photo courtesy of Bridget Samuels) Horton's overtime game-winning-goal in Game 7 of the Montreal series is our 3rd best game in the countdown of the Top-10 Bruins games of the 2011 Playofs

Bruins Daily will be taking a look at the top 10 Bruins regular season games of 2010-11, followed by the top ten playoff games of the 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Today we take a look at No. 3: Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Game 7, Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins.

After six entertaining back-and-forth playoff hockey games, it was only fitting the two longtime rivals would go seven games to decide who would move onto the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

3:30 into Game 7, the Bruins got things going with a blast from the point off the stick of Johnny Boychuk, his first of the playoffs. Mark Recchi doubled the Bruins lead two minutes later when a loose puck found his stick after a Canadiens turnover, the future Hall-of-Famer walked into the slot and unleashed a beauty of a wrist shot, beating Canadiens goalie Carey Price.

Nearly five minutes later the Canadiens would cut the lead in half. With the Habs on the power play, Mike Cammalleri would hit a streaking Yannick Weber with a beautiful pass; Weber roofed the puck over the glove of Tim Thomas, putting the finishing touch on an all-around great play.

The lead would stay 2-1 Bruins until early in the third. With Lars Eller in the box for cross checking, Tomas Plekanec would take advantage of some poor puck management by the Bruins.

Recchi had trouble controlling a pass from Dennis Seidenberg at the red line and rushed in all alone on Tim Thomas. Plekanec beat Thomas five-hole and knotted things up at two apiece.

With the game still tied at two, and the third period almost halfway completed, Chris Kelly gave the Bruins a third period lead. A harmless shot by Andrew Ference bounced off the pads of Price and onto the stick of Kelly who found the back of the net giving the Bruins a 3-2 lead.

With less than three minutes to go in regulation Patrice Bergeron would get called for a high stick putting the Canadiens in good shape to tie the game up. An absolute cannon from P.K. Subban helped the Habs tie the game up once again and force overtime in this decisive Game 7.

With the way history has gone for the Bruins of late against Montreal and in Game 7’s, Bruins fans couldn’t be too confident in this one, but Nathan Horton made sure that Dirty Water would be played at the TD Garden on this night.

Horton launched a puck from the point that had eyes and somehow found the back of the net giving the Bruins the 4-3 victory in Game 7, and in the series.

Bruins Goal Scorers: Boychuk, Recchi, Kelly, Horton
Canadiens Goal Scorers: Webber, Plekanec, Subban

Game Notes:
With their win in Game 7, the Bruins won a series in which they trailed in the series 2-0 for the first time ever.
The Bruins are now 3-5 against Montreal in Game 7’s.
Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec won 6 of his 30 faceoffs.
Andrew Ference finished the game a plus-3, as Mike Cammalleri finished a minus-3.