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Top 10 2011 Playoff Moments: Horton beats the Habs

Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic

Boston Bruins’ Nathan Horton, right, celebrates his goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning with teammate left wing Milan Lucic (17) in the third period of Game 7 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs Eastern Conference final series, Friday, May 27, 2011, in Boston. The Bruins won 1-0. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

AP

From Apr. 1-10, ProHockeyTalk will be counting down the Top 10 moments from the 2011 postseason.

Here’s No. 7 — Nathan Horton scoring an overtime game-winner in Game 7 of the Montreal Canadiens-Boston Bruins series.

The beauty and agony of the playoffs is that the margin between victory and defeat can be paper-thin. The Bruins’ Stanley Cup run is a great testament to that as they needed three Game 7 victories (and one sweep) to win it all, but one could argue that Montreal had them on the ropes the most. So ponder all the “What ifs?” while watching Horton’s OT-winner in Game 7 of the tight first round series:

“Just getting to the playoffs is all I was really thinking about. This has been a dream come true,” Horton said. “I’m really enjoying it. I’m enjoying it more every day.”

Horton spent the first six seasons of his career with the Florida Panthers, which obviously means that this was the first playoff series of his NHL days. Up until that point, Horton hadn’t been very effective in that series - aside from another OT goal - but he would go on to score another Game 7-winner to launch the Bruins into the Stanley Cup finals. That made this Claude Julien quote quite the prediction:

“He’s been saving it for seven years, right?” Julien said. “So he had a lot of game-winning goals in him.”

Sadly, all indications are that Horton won’t have a chance to conjure more magic in this year’s playoffs because of concussion issues that began in that same magical run.

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