Blackhawks Stun Boston To Win The Cup

Blackhawks Stun Boston To Win The Cup

Heading into game 6, the hope in Boston was this: the Bruins play their best with their backs to the wall.

That was the case to start game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals Monday night in Boston but not at the finish. Trailing 3-2 in the series, the Bruins were on the brink of elimination needing a win to force a game 7 in Chicago on Wednesday. They didn't get it.

Chicago got two late goals to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win to capture the Cup at the TD Garden.

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Boston needed to start fast, and they did.

The Bruins took the play to Chicago from the opening faceoff out-hitting (16-13), out-shooting (12-6) and out-scoring (1-0) the Blackhawks in the opening 20 minutes. Boston also dominated face-offs in the first to the tune of 17-7. The B’s also had 21 scoring chances to 4 for Chicago and 32 attempted shots to just 8 for the Blackhawks. That hard work paid off.

At 7:19 of the first, Boston’s most effective line of the series struck again as Daniel Paille found Tyler Seguin who found Chris Kelly to the right of the Chicago net for a quick wrister that beat Corey Crawford glove side for a 1-0 lead.

Boston missed a golden opportunity to make it 2-0 in the final minute of the first period when Brad Marchand made a great move on the leftwing and made a cross-ice pass that David Krejci couldn’t put home.

Krejci had a wide open right side of the net to stuff it in but could not because the puck was on edge.

In the second, just as Boston was wrapping up it's 3rd power play opportunity of the night, veteran defenseman and Bruins captain Zdeno Chara made a mistake by trying to play the puck off the face-off by pinching just outside of the Chicago blue line.  It led to a 2-on-1 break for Chicago where Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews fired a wrist shot low through the 5-hole on Tuukka Rask to tie the game 1-1 at 4:24.  For Chara, it continued a bad streak where he has been on the ice for 9 of Chicago's last 10 goals in the series.

That would be the only scoring in the second.  But, just as Boston controlled play in the first, Chicago seemed to find itself in period number two.

The tension was palpable in the third with the Bruins and their fans well aware that another Chicago goal could have very well meant the end of their terriffic season.  With that in mind, the B's responded.

At 12:11 of the third, Boston's top line, which had been relatively quiet this series, finally delivered.  A Chicago turnover in their own zone allowed Krejci to get the puck behind the Blackhawks net.  David Krejci delivered the puck out front amidst traffic where Milan Licic put it home off of the blocker of Crawford for a 2-1 lead.

At 14:21 of the third, Chris Kelly went to the penatly box for a high stick but Chicago could manage only one shot on goal which came with :01 second remaining on the power play.

The Hawks pulled Crawford with 1:25 to play for the extra attacker and it paid off.  Duncan Keith found Jonathan Toevs who found Greg Bickell for the game-tying goal with just 1:16 left.

And then, the cursher.  Just :17 seconds later, Chicago scored again as Dave Bolland beat Rask for the Cup clincher.

 

 

 

NOTES:

-Despite missing most of the final two periods of game 5, Boston’s Patrice Bergeron was back on the ice for Monday night’s game 5. Bergeron received a standing ovation from the TD Garden crowd on his first shift on the ice. Nobody really knows exactly what Bergeron injured in game 5 that sent him to a Chicago hospital. There has been speculation that it could have been a back injury or something to do with his spleen. But this is the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. And, with all due respect to some of the other major professional sports leagues (see Major League Baseball), it takes a lot more than a few bumps, bruises and minor injuries to keep players off the ice. It’s another reason why the Stanley Cup Playoffs are among the best theatre in sports.

-Chicago’s Jonathan Toews also missed the third period of game 5 after getting rocked with a hit by Johnny Boychuck in front of the net towards then end of the second period. The Blackhawks would only say that Toews had an “upper body injury.” He did hit his head on the ice after being hit by Boychuck.

-The injuries are really starting to pile up on both sides as this series progresses. Two more players were hurt in the first period of game 6 as Jaromir Jagr and Andrew Shaw both went down. Jagr was checked in the corner by Dave Bolland and seemed to be wiping his nose on the bench expecting blood. He went to the locker room early in the first and did not return for the remainder of the period. Shaw deflected a shot by Shawn Thornton and took the puck off of the side of his right eye. He was bleeding profusely and had to leave the ice.  After getting stitched up, Shaw was back on the ice to start the second period, as was Jagr who was back on the Boston bench.  However, Jagr went back to the bench midway through the period.  He came back on the ice to start the third.

-There was some legitimate concern over the quality of the ice surface prior to game 6 with a record-high temperature of 95 in Boston on Monday. While the TD Garden is air conditioned, there was fog on the ice earlier in the day for the teams’ pre game skates. Fortunately, the ice conditions were very good come game time but they did seem to deteriorate a bit as the game wore on.

-Tyler Seguin has had his share of critics this postseason due to his inability to find the back of the net (1 goal in 22 games). Seguin does have 7 assists in the playoffs, 4 of which have come in this series. Despite the low numbers, Seguin has played very well this series making his presence felt on almost every shift on the ice.

-Despite an overwhelming advantage in power play opportunities (4-2), the Bruins came up empty on the man advantage as did Chicago.