Overtime Heroics Evens Series For Boston

After a marathon game in the opener of this years finals, Game Two proved to be just as exciting. Unlike Game One of this years finals, game two didn't need three overtimes to decided it. One overtime was all it took for Dan Paille to even the finals for the Bruins.  Just as in the last two periods of regulation in game one, Chicago just flat out dominated Boston in the first period of game two. Shots in the opening period favored the Hawks 19-4. That's an insane number. It showed me that Chicago had the life and jump at the start of game two, and Boston's legs were nowhere to be found.

Both goalies played great in the first period, Tukka Rask more than Corey Crawford. Chicago got the only goal of the opening period as at the 11:22 mark Patrick Sharp scored his 9th of the playoffs. It was out of a wild netmouth scramble Sharp found the loose puck got the circle and wired one upstairs on Rask. Chicago had all the great scoring chances in the period and after 20 minutes had the 1-0 lead. From that point on, Chicago's quality chances were few and far between. Crawford got tested more in the middle period and looked good. That was until the 14:58 mark when Chris Kelly scored his 1st of the playoffs to tie the game. Kelly got the goal but it was all on the strength of the play behind the net by Dan Paille to get Kelly the puck in front of the net that made the play so great. Chicago was outplayed in the middle period, and outshot by an 8-4 margin. Boston really picked up the hitting and slowed down the Chicago transition game.

So with the scored tied at one going into the 3rd period, both teams had a few chances but came up empty. Boston outshot the Hawks 8-5 in the final period, and both Rask and Crawford had to make big saves at key times. So for the 2nd time in as many games in the final we headed to overtime.

Both teams had quality chances early on. About a minute and a half in Jaromir Jagr had an incredible chance to end it but he RANG the shot off the crossbar. He beat Crawford clean over the glove and clinked the crossbar. And this is what it sounded like:


Then about six minutes into overtime Patrick Sharp had the best chance for the Hawks. He took a drop pass from Hossa at the right wing circle and let a rising shot go that Rask got a piece of and let it sail over the net. After trading odd man rushes from then out, Boston finally got the break it was looking for. Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook rimmed the puck up the left-wing boards, but it got past left wing Brandon Bollig and McQuaid played it back down the wall to Seguin, who quickly moved it across the zone to a wide-open Paille. He took his time and fired a high, glove-side shot that went past Crawford and just inside the far post with 6:12 left in the overtime. This is what you're game two winner looked like:



So there you have it. With Daille's heroics we will have a game five back in Chicago next weekend. Chicago outshot Boston 34-28 in the game, and that's the same thing that happened in game one too. Tukka Rask stopped 33 of 34 Chicago shots, while Corey Crawford stopped 26 of 28 Bruins shots. One of the big differences in this game from game one was the physical play of the Bruins. Boston was outplayed badly by the Hawks at the end of regulation in game one and the opening period of game two. Then from the 2nd period on, Boston turned up the hitting on the Hawks, and Chicago was really thrown off their game. Boston out hit Chicago in game two 50-34. For Boston to be successful in this series, they are going to need to keep that physical play up. Chicago is going to have to find a way around this physical play otherwise this series is going to get a lot tougher on the Hawks.

Game three will take place tonight at 8PM on NBC Sports from TD Garden in Boston!