“I can tell you right now I’ve never cried at a hockey game in my life before, but with four minutes left, they were pouring out,’’ said Dan St. Pierre, a 25-year-old from Danvers, pointing to tears on his cheeks and his still-watery eyes. “I just kissed a guy I’ve never seen before in my life.’’
Hundreds also gathered in Kenmore Square, leaping up and down and hoisting each other on their shoulders. At the Eire Pub in Dorchester, which had to turn fans away for the first time in 50 years, the bartender sprayed the overjoyed crowd with soda water.
As the Bruins captured a title that had eluded them for decades, since the legendary Bobby Orr was the toast of Boston, people across the city were glued to radios and televisions — a cab driver who stole glimpses at sports bars between fares, a store clerk who listened in the stark quiet of his empty store.
For fans who had followed the team’s every twist and turn as long as they could remember, the win was a transcendent thrill, a genuine moment of catharsis they thought might never come.
“It’s kismet. It’s fate,’’ said Walter Corbett, 64, who watched the game in Charlestown. “Everything is good with the world.’’
The victory parade will be held tomorrow or Saturday, the mayor’s office said. Fans said they could not wait to pay tribute to the team, who they said were worthy heirs to the great Bruins champions of the 1970s.
“This is better than every other championship,’’ said Nick Pontacoloni, 29, of Brighton. “Nothing compares to a Stanley Cup.’’
Well before the game ended, the area around the TD Garden was tightly barricaded and heavily patrolled by police, who contended with largely minor incidents, including fans rocking a bus and others climbing to rooftops at North Station. State Police said some unruly fans were pulling down parking signs and throwing them.
