Third Period Surge Sends Bruins Past Blackhawks
BOSTON (AP) — Brian Gionta and Rick Nash each scored a power-play goal and the Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Blackhawks 7-4 Saturday to complete a 6-0 homestand.
Their goals came during a double-minor penalty on Chicago's Patrick Kane.
Jake DeBrusk set up two power-play goals by David Krejci. David Pastrnak scored, Noel Acciari had a shorthanded tally and Sean Kuraly added an empty-netter for Boston.
Tuukka Rask made 23 saves on his 31st birthday.
Erik Gustafsson had a goal and two assists, and Jonathan Toews, John Hayden and Matthew Highmore scored for Chicago, which lost for the fifth time in seven games.
Highmore's was his first in the NHL.
Gionta, the captain of the U.S. team at the Seoul Olympics, scored the go-ahead goal 8:02 into the third by tapping in a rebound at the edge of the crease. Nash redirected a shot from the top of the crease 76 seconds later.
The Bruins had four power-play goals.
Boston had tied it at 4 when Pastrnak charged to the net to knock in Brad Marchand's rebound with 13:37 left in the third period.
Highmore broke a 3-3 tie by sending a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Rask inside the far post with 4:14 left in the second period.
Chicago had taken a 3-2 edge on Hayden's goal 6:37 into the second, but Boston tied it 10 seconds into a power play.
DeBrusk stickhandled around a pair of Blackhawks players before sending a pass over to Krejci, who one-timed a shot into the net.
The teams were tied at 2 after a first period that featured plenty of good scoring chances and a shot off a post by each club.
Boston went ahead 2-0 with two special teams' goals. Acciari fired the rebound of Kuraly's breakaway shot into the net 11:27 into the game. Krejci, positioned in the slot, one-timed DeBrusk's pass from the left corner over Berube's left shoulder.
But the Blackhawks scored twice in 29 seconds to tie it.
On the first, Gustafsson fired a slap shot from the left point that Toews tipped inside the right post past. Gustafsson fired a shot from nearly the identical spot that beat Rask to the same side, tying it at 14:56.
NOTES: Blackhawks forward Anthony Duclair had to be helped off the ice, favoring his right leg, after a center-ice collision with Marchand in the opening period. He was helped down the runway to the locker room and didn't return. The Bruins' winger was called for interference on the play. . Chicago's Joel Quenneville coached his 1,608th game, moving him past Al Arbour for second most on the NHL's all-time list. . Boston backup goalie Anton Khudobin is expected to start the next game.
UP NEXT
The teams meet again in Chicago on Sunday with an 11:30 a.m. CT start.
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