***** National Hockey League Previews from The Sports Network *****
                               Monday, June 17th
                              (All times Eastern)
 
 (1-W) CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS (1-1) AT (4-E) BOSTON BRUINS (1-1), 8 P.M.
 
 (Sports Network) - The Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks both will try to
 gain the lead in the Stanley Cup Finals on Monday, as the clubs battle in Game
 3 at TD Garden.
 
 The Bruins and Blackhawks are tied at 1-1 in this best-of-seven series after
 splitting a pair of overtime games in Chicago. The Blackhawks won Wednesday's
 opener 4-3 in triple overtime, but Boston bounced back with a 2-1 OT win in
 Saturday's Game 2 at United Center.
 
 Boston, the East's fourth seed, is 7-2 as the host team in these playoffs and
 has won six straight at TD Garden since dropping Game 5 of the first round
 against Toronto on May 10. The Bruins also get to host Game 4 on Wednesday.
 
 Meanwhile, Chicago, this year's Presidents Trophy winners, has posted a 3-4
 record as the guest during this postseason.
 
 Boston earned a split in Chicago after Daniel Paille scored at 13:48 of
 overtime to give the Bruins a 2-1 win on Saturday. 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 1-1 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."
 
 Rask kept the score at 1-0 in the first period despite his team getting
 outshot 19-4 in the opening 20 minutes. He has turned aside 92-of-97 shots in
 the first two games of this series and is boasting a stout .944 save
 percentage in this year's playoffs.
 
 "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."
 
 Patrick Sharp scored the only goal on Saturday 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.
 
 "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."
 
 Boston was 0-for-2 on the power play while Chicago went 0-for-3.
 
 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.
 
 This year's Cup Finals also is a battle between recent champions. Boston beat
 Vancouver in 2011 to win the Cup, while Chicago took down Philadelphia the
 year before to win it all.
 
 Boston has won five of its six postseason meetings against Chicago.
 
 
 
 
 
 06/17 10:30:08 ET

Powered by The Sports Network.