Chicago, IL – Milan Lucic scored the only goal of the first period as the Boston Bruins hold a 1-0 lead over the Chicago Blackhawks after 20 minutes of play in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Boston broke through at the 13:11 mark of the frame. David Krejci went for the puck behind the net and shrugged off a hit from Niklas Hjalmarsson before dishing the puck to the left circle where Nathan Horton one-touched it to the slot, and Lucic one-timed the puck home for his fourth of the playoffs.
Tuukka Rask stopped eight shots in the frame to keep the Blackhawks off the board.
The first good opportunity of the game went to Chicago as Andrew Shaw sent a short pass from the slot to the left circle where Brandon Saad tried to get it in on the short side, but Rask sealed off the post to make the stop 5 1/2 minutes in.
THe Bruins had a few shots on Corey Crawford early, but saw its first good chance come with 9 1/2 minutes left as Krejci tried a quick shot from the low right circle, but Crawford swallowed up the puck.
Just over a minute later, Brad Marchand got the disc at the left circle and tried to beat Crawford with a wrister, but the goalie snagged the puck out of the air with a dramatic, sweeping glove stop to keep the game scoreless.
Neither side took a penalty in the opening 20 minutes.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.