BOS VS WSHSemin drawing praise not just for goals

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Patrice Bergeron and Joe Corvo are both questionable for Sunday afternoon's Game 6 after suffering injuries in Saturday afternoon's 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals.

Bergeron appeared to suffer two different blows to the head - one via an inadvertent Alex Semin elbow in the second period and an Alex Ovechkin shot that crept up on his head in the third period - and skated only three shifts in the third period. Corvo took a Mike Green slapshot off the knee that helped lead to Washington's first goal, and the B's defenceman never returned to the game.

Both were question marks for Sunday afternoon's potential elimination game for Boston.

"I'm not sure. You get into a game and you're told that a guy is a little injured at that point, and that's all I know," said Bruins coach Claude Julien when asked if Bergeron sustained his injury after a collision with Ovechkin in the opening minutes of the third period. "I'm not quite sure whether it was [the Ovechkin] hit or a hit earlier where he kind of went into the glass. That's where I think it started in my mind, but I'm not 100 percent sure on that."

The Bruins are 3-17 lifetime in Game 6 scenarios when trailing a series 3-2, and they won all their Game 5 tilts last season in each of their seven-game series wins during the playoffs.

Alex Semin has been a revelation for the Washington Capitals throughout the playoffs, and has three goals in his last three games. He also managed to ring Patrice Bergeron's bell with a collision in the second period before fighting his way over Greg Zanon at the Boston net to score Washington's first goal of Saturday afternoon's game. Semin has been blocking shots and actually playing a physical game in addition to providing the offence.

The moody Russian star is a big reason behind the Capitals leading the series.

"You learn about the character of guys, really. Alex Semin going down and blocking shots, Ovie [Alex Ovechkin] taking hits to make plays, those guys that normally you wouldn't categorize in that type of role are doing what they need to do to win hockey games," said Troy Brower, who scored the game-winning goal in Game 5. "There's a lot of supporting guys who are scoring goals, Beags [Jay Beagle] and Knubs [Mike Knuble] tonight, that's what you need if you want to win in the playoffs."

Projected lineups

Bruins

• Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Tyler Seguin (F)
• Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Rich Peverley (F)
• Brian Rolston-Chris Kelly-Benoit Pouliot (F)
• Brad Marchand-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton (F)
• Zdeno Chara-Dennis Seidenberg (D)
• Andrew Ference-Johnny Boychuk (D)
• Greg Zanon-Joe Corvo (D)
• Tim Thomas (G)

Capitals

• Alex Ovechkin-Brooks Laich-Marcus Johansson (F)
• Jason Chimera-Nicklas Backstrom-Alexander Semin (F)
• Matt Hendricks-Jay Beagle-Troy Brouwer (F)
• Mike Knuble-Keith Aucoin-Joel Ward (F)
• Karl Alzner-John Carlson (D)
• Roman Hamrlik-Mike Green (D)
• John Erskine-Dennis Wideman (D)
• Braden Holtby (G)

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