Bruins Rein In Blackhawks, Tie Stanley Cup Finals
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 16, 2013 2:00PM
If the National Hockey League awarded style points for out-skating an opponent, the Blackhawks would be heading to Boston with a 2-0 lead. But the Bruins withstood an early Chicago rush, dictated the tempo the rest of the game and earned a 2-1 overtime win in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals at the United Center Saturday night to tie the series 1-1 heading to the Fleet Center TD Garden Monday night.
The Hawks took the ice determined to establish their puck possession game and succeeded. They reached every loose puck, parked players in front of Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask and dictated the tempo of the first period. "They were pouncing on every single puck in front of net, had a lot of chances," Rask said after the game.
The Hawks took a 1-0 lead with Patrick Sharp's ninth goal of the postseason, a wrist shot set up by passes from Patrick Kane and Michal Handzus. The lead remained 1-0 after 20 minutes, despite Boston being outshot 19-4. Most of that was Rask's play between the pipes, but the Blackhawks had another wasted power play opportunity when Andrew Ference served a two-minute penalty for tripping. Chicago could only get off two shots in the power play.
The Bruins returned after the first intermission, slowed the pace of the game, started making some tough hit and tied it with a goal from Chris Kelly at the 14:58 mark. How much of a change was the second period from the first? Boston outshot Chicago 8-4 in the second period and headed into the second intermission with the game tied, despite the Blackhawks having 23 shots on goal.
The two teams mucked it up in the third period with sloppy, chippy play as overtime loomed, and things looked headed to another triple overtime thriller before Daniel Paille stole home ice advantage from the Hawks with shot past Corey Crawford at 13:48 into the extra period.
Hawks captain Jonathan Toews called the loss "frustrating."
"It had nothing to do with them turning it on, we just started letting them do whatever they wanted to and we gave them chance after chance. In the overtime period we were turning pucks over and they had their way."
With Rask matching Crawford's performance in goal and the series shifting to Beantown, the Hawks' lack of a power play is becoming a major theme, even more than Toews's inability to score.
The Hawks were 0-for-3 with a man advantage Saturday, are 0-for-6 in the penalty during the Finals and saw their power play scoring percentage drop to 12.3 percent. The power play was so inept that NBC Sports NHL analyst Mike Milbury said during one of the intermissions coach Joel Quenneville and his staff should practice it before Game 3.
Chicago also needs to improve its faceoff winning percentage, another season long weakness. They won 46 percent of their faceoffs in Game 2. If Toews is looking to contribute in other ways besides scoring, he can start there as he's the Hawks' best faceoff specialist.