B's On The Brink

B's On The Brink

Sometimes in sports it’s just as important to be lucky as it is to be good.

That was the case for the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday night who got another lucky bounce on their way to a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins in game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Despite outhitting (23-9) and outshooting (11-8) Chicago in the first period, the Blackhawks were able to score the period’s only goal.

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A slap-shot by Johnny Oduya was blocked by the stick of Dennis Seidenberg. However, the shot broke the stick of Seidenberg which drastically slowed down the puck. That caused Tuukka Rask to pause a bit while Patrick Kane picked up the loose puck and stuffed it in stick-side for the 1-0 Chicago lead.

If you recall, the Blackhawks won game 1 of the series thanks to some lucky bounces off of their own players and Boston players.

The Blackhawks and Kane added to that lead at 5:13 of the second when Bryan Bickell skated in and was denied stick-side by Rask. Bickell picked up his own rebound, went around the net and fed it out front to a cutting Kane who backhanded the bouncing puck high into the net for a 2-0 lead.

Trailing 2-0 entering the third, Boston came out storming and it paid off.  David Krejci found Zdeno Chara in the left circle for a one-timer that beat Corey Crawford high glove side to put the B's on the board 2-1.

But that's as close as they would get.

Dave Bolland's empty-netter in the game's final minute made the final 3-1 Chicago.

Like it did against Vancouver in 2011, Boston now returns home for game 6 on the brink of elimination. A Chicago win and The Cup is theirs. Boston must win Monday night (8pm – NBC) to send the series back to Chicago for a seventh and deciding game Wednesday night.

 

NOTES:

-Chicago’s Marian Hossa and Boston’s Jaromir Jagr both missed their teams morning skate Saturday. But, as expected, both were in their team’s respective line-ups for game 5. Hossa missed game 3 of the series with what the team called an “upper body injury.” Comcast’s Tony Amonte, a former Blackhawk, said sources inside the Chicago locker room claim that Hossa is nursing a strained groin. Meanwhile, at age 41, Jagr was just getting some rest for his aging legs prior to game 5.

-Jagr continues to be snake bitten when it comes to finding the back of the net. Despite his 10 assists this postseason, the prolific scorer and future Hall of Famer has yet to put the puck in the net during these playoffs. He had another golden opportunity in the first period when he came off the leftwing boards midway through the first period and beat three Blackhawks to get off a sharp wrist shot that was saved by Crawford.

-There was one notable change in Boston’s line-up in game 5. Swedish Elite League sensation Carl Soderberg was activated by the Bruins replacing Kaspar Daudavins on the team’s 4th line. It was his first appearance for the team this postseason after playing 6 games for Boston towards the end of the regular season. He made his presence felt early as he had two good shots on Corey Crawford.  He also took Patrice Bergeron's spot on Boston's second line in the third period once Bergeron was unable to return to the game.

-Something happenned to Patrice Bergeron early in the second period that only allowed him to take one shift in the final 16 minutes of the period.  He seemed to tweak something when skating behind the Chicago net but head coach Claude Julien did not shed any light on what the injury might be during his mid-period interview with NBC.  Bergeron did not play in the third and was sent to the hospital in Chicago to be evalutated,  Julien failed to shed any light on the injury in his postgame press conference as well.  Whatever it was, Bergeron appeared to be uncomfortable leaving his status for game 6 Monday night very much in question.

-Bergeron wasn't the only star injured Saturday night.  Jonathan Toews took a hard shot from Johnny Boychuck late in the second and did not play in the third.  His status for game 6 is also unknown.

-In regards to Crawford, much was made leading up to the game about his inability to stop shots glove-side. Entering game 5, 10 of Boston’s 12 goals scored in the series were scored high on Crawford’s glove-side. Apparently it has been a point of emphasis in practice for the past few days leading up to game 6.  While the Bruins didn't really test Crawford as much as they could have, his solid play was an indication that all was right for the Chicago netminder Saturday night.  He stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced while Rask turned away 29 of 31.