Chicago, IL – Daniel Paille scored at 13:48 of overtime to give the Boston Bruins a 2-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
A wraparound from behind the Chicago net along the right boards wasn't handled by the Blackhawks' Brandon Bollig, and Boston's Adam McQuaid was able to push the puck down to Tyler Seguin. From the mid-boards, Seguin fired the puck over to the slot, where Paille ripped it home into the right corner for the win.
Paille also had the assist on Chris Kelly's goal that tied the contest in the second period and Tuukka Rask was strong in a sloppy first period for Boston and finished the game with 33 saves.
"If you look at our game I thought we weren't there at first," said Boston head coach Claude Julien. "We started to get better as the game went on, but Tuukka bailed us out. I told our guys that we have to show up for these games from the start or we're going to get into trouble."
Patrick Sharp scored the only goal of the game for the Blackhawks in the first period, and Corey Crawford made 26 stops in the loss.
Chicago had won Game 1 by a score of 4-3 in triple-overtime after rallying from a two-goal deficit in the third period, but failed to repeat the magic as the team lost for just the second time at home in 12 playoff games.
It was the second straight season that Games 1 and 2 were decided in an extra session, as the Kings took two at New Jersey en route to last year's Cup title.
This series heads back to Boston for the next two games, with Game 3 set for Monday night at TD Garden.
The game nearly ended just 1 1/2 minutes into overtime as Jaromir Jagr beat Crawford with a wrister, but it rang off the crossbar and stayed out.
Crawford made nice stops later in the overtime as he turned aside a Milan Lucic shot down low, then later made a save on a Nathan Horton one-timer from the slot.
Andrew Shaw, who scored the winner in the third overtime of Game 1, had a chance on a one-timer from the right side on a rush, but Rask made the stop to keep the game going.
The Blackhawks had the only goal of the first period on Sharp's ninth of the playoffs.
Patrick Kane got the sequence started when he flew in on net from the right side and got a backhander on net then put his own rebound on Rask again. That started a mad flurry that saw Rask make two more saves, but Sharp chased down the puck at the right circle and his turnaround shot found its way through a maze and past a fallen Rask for a 1-0 lead with 8:38 left in the frame.
A wraparound from Jonathan Toews just over a minute later was reviewed to see if the puck crossed the line. It did apparently make its way across, but it was after the whistle had blown and the on-ice call of no-goal stood.
"Well, we definitely were in survival mode there for a bit," said Rask. "It looked like they had more guys out there than we did. They were bouncing on every single puck in front of net, had a lot of chances. We definitely played pretty bad."
Boston continued to have trouble sustaining offensive pressure in the second period until Kelly got the team on the board.
Paille made a nice move behind the Chicago net to get around a defender and tried a wraparound that was stopped by Crawford, but the rebound came out front and Kelly buried it with 5:02 to play.
"Not much needed to be said after that first period," said Kelly. "I think Tuukka pointed out that was a pretty terrible period by our team. If it wasn't for Tuukka, it would have been a lot worse. To a guy in there, I think we all knew we had to go out and play better."
Dennis Seidenberg was called for a trip on Brandon Saad with 2:49 to play in the second and Rask stopped a Dave Bolland shot then covered up the puck as Kane threw it back out front.
Chicago caught a break as Paille picked off the puck and got it to Brad Marchand, who skated in on net with a defender on him and was able to get a shot off, but it caught the right post and stayed out.
A Johnny Oduya tripping call with 46 seconds to play gave the Bruins their second power play of the game, but Crawford made a couple of stops on Jagr before time expired in the frame.
"It's like the second period, I thought we lost the pace of the game on that end of the rink," said Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville. "We had the perfect start to the game, then we stopped doing what made us successful. We stood around, they countered."
The two teams locked down on defense in the third period, combining for just 13 shots, eight of which came from Boston skaters.
Crawford was called upon to keep the game tied 3 1/2 minutes into the third period as Jagr flew in down the right side and made a nifty move before sending the puck over to the left wing. Marchand snapped a wrist shot on net, but Crawford stopped the puck to keep the game deadlocked.
David Krejci then had a chance a few minutes later when he was clear in the slot, but Crawford stopped that shot as well.
Chicago saw limited time in the Boston end and had no serious threats during the frame as it headed to overtime.
Game Notes
Boston was 0-for-2 on the power play while Chicago went 0-for-3 ... Boston moved to 6-3 on the road in the postseason ... This series marks the first time Original Six franchises have met in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1979, when Montreal defeated the New York Rangers in five games ... Boston beat Vancouver in 2011 to win the Cup, while Chicago took down Philly the year before to win it all ... Boston has won five of the six postseason meetings against Chicago.
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