Tuukka Rask (Photo Credit: Steph Phillips)

Tonight the third game of the Stanley Cup Finals took place in Boston as the Bruins hosted the Blackhawks for the first time on home ice. Despite a late surge by Chicago, and by late I mean the last two minutes, the Bruins held strong and Tuukka earned his third postseason shutout to put Boston up 2-1 in the series.

After a seemingly lifeless start for the Boston Bruins in game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final it was a welcomed surprise to see them come out of the locker room with confidence. They found themselves on the short-end of the stick when it came to man-advantages as both Kaspars Daugavins and Shawn Thornton found themselves in the penalty box. Despite being a man down on two different occasions the Bruins held their offensive pressure and contained Chicago to no shots on goal. Through twenty minutes the Bruins and ‘Hawks were deadlocked at zero and Boston holding a slight 11-10 advantage in shots.

Second period began with Boston excitement as Tyler Seguin blasted a shot on Corey Crawford that went off of his glove. Chris Kelly and Daniel Paille kept the pressure on and won the battles in the corners and were able to get an open shot on Crawford that provided Paille with his second goal in as many games.  Jaromir Jagr, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron teamed up for one of the best shifts of the period as they began with a two-on-one opportunity and kept the pressure on Chicago for a good 40-45 seconds straight before Crawford was able to stop the play. As the Bruins found themselves on a 5-on-3 opportunity for 11 seconds, they worked the advantage. Just as the first penalty expired Zdeno Chara was able to send the puck down low to Jaromir Jagr who quickly passed the puck across in front to Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron settled it down and was able to bank the puck in off the post for a 2-0 Boston lead at 14:05. A lead that would last into the final frame.

The Bruins continued to build off of their momentum they set forth in the first and second periods and kept the strong offensive power going. The most excitement from the frame came in the remaining sixty seconds as Chicago pulled Crawford and gained the extra attacker. As Brian Bickell came off the bench he unleashed a bomb on Rask that hit the far post and came out the other end behind Rask. As Bickell came in the crease he gave Chara a little shove to which Chara retaliated with a cross-check and that’s all she wrote. The two were in a jousting match that led to Brad Marchand and Andrew Shaw landing a few punches on each other as well. With 11.9 seconds remaining the Blackhawks showed the most sign of life they had all game, but it was too little too late as the Bruins skated away with a 2-0 shutout victory to claim their first lead in the series.

The next game is Wednesday night with a faceoff time set for 8:00pm ET.