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Finally: Kelly, third line strike in Chicago

June 16, 2013, 1:41 PM ET [40 Comments]
Ty Anderson
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Much has been made about the 2013 Boston Bruins and their weird connections and similarities to the Cup-winning Boston squad from two years ago. From rookies to goaltenders, nights of clinching-contests to weather anomalies, it seems as if everything’s lined up just right to make ‘13 seem like ‘11. But if there was one part of the equation that the Black-and-Gold would’ve preferred not to see repeated, it’d be heading back to the TD Garden in an 0-2 hole in a Stanley Cup Final against a highly-skilled Presidents’ Trophy winning club with tremendous goaltending.

Fortunately, they’re not. and that itself is really a miracle.

Utterly dominated in an opening period where an overwhelming Chicago attack outshot Boston 19-to-4, and falling behind 1-0 when Patrick Sharp’s blast beat a completely screened Tuukka Rask, the only thing that kept the Black-and-Gold alive aside from the referee losing sight of what would’ve been a Jonathan Toews goal was in fact the play of the 26-year-old Rask. Surviving an opening 20 that gave the ‘Hawks eight scoring chances, and by all means bully the Bruins around in their own zone, it was Rask’s ability to read and dissect Chicago’s stifling attacks that kept the Bruins out of skating in a first frame blowout.

After 20, the B’s were lucky to be standing, let alone down by just one.

But they weren’t dead yet.

On the power-play early in the second frame when Dave Bolland tripped up Boston agitator Brad Marchand, the Bruins’ stumbling on the man-advantage wasn’t necessarily idea, but appeared to give them a push to get their offensive attack in gear. Suddenly facing time and space in the Chicago zone -- a laughable thought in the first period -- an equalizing tally would come over 14 minutes into the second, but from the unlikeliest of faces.

With the club’s new-look third line wings Danny Paille and Tyler Seguin battling around and in front of Corey Crawford’s net, slumping pivot Chris Kelly came swooping in and banged home the garbage, striking with his first goal of the postseason, 18 games in.

“It was a great five-guy effort. Andrew [Ference] made a pinch, Tyler was in on the play and got it to Daniel, and Daniel took it to the net. I just happened to be there, and tapped it in,” the 32-year-old Kelly said of his first goal since Apr. 17, and his seventh playoff tally as a Bruin since 2011.

Ultimately controlling the pace of play in the middle frame, the third period brought much of the same from Boston, and as we were once again seeing free hockey at United Center.

Becoming just the fourth Cup Final series in league history to require overtime in the first two games, the intensity (already at an all-time) was heightened for the 21,000 plus in the crowd as the 41-year-old Jaromir Jagr rang (and nearly shattered) the crossbar with a shot, setting the tone for the Black-and-Gold’s dogged determination for the Game 2 dagger.

Chicago’s chances certainly came, however, as Patrick Sharp’s bullet went just too high over a panicking Rask and Andrew Shaw’s one-timer was just within Rask’s tight-angled grasp, but the stars just seemed to align for whatever the Bruins’ bottom-six was up to on the night.

On an absolute great feed from the 21-year-old Seguin, the puck was found back of Paille’s blade, and this time off the post and into the back of the net, sealing the deal on a 2-1 Boston win, and an even series heading back to Boston.

Machine Gun Kelly, third line returns to offensive relevance...

Well, this is what you’ve been waiting for -- The third line was the line of the night for Boston. There’s really no other way say it, and damn that’s refreshing for Bruins fans to hear. With the first line hampered by the nagging shoulder injury suffered by Nathan Horton, and second line used as a shutdown line against Toews and company most shifts, the chances for the Bruins’ new-look third line of Paille-Kelly-Seguin were there, and for the first time all playoffs, they buried ‘em.

“I think it's even more important to play the other parts of the game when you're not contributing offensively. I think you need to pick up other aspects of your game to make them better in order to
be a better all-around player,” said Kelly after last night’s game. “Everyone would love to score and score consistently. For whatever reason, I haven't. I try to stay positive. As long as the team's doing well, I know that's kind of a cliché, but that's kind of how our room is.”

One of the admittedly surprising elements of last season’s B’s squad came with the goal-scoring prowess of Kelly, a defense-first centermen that rarely skates above the Bruins’ bottom two lines, that saw the Toronto native find the back of the net 20 times. Plummeting back to Earth in 2013, albeit in a lockout-shortened campaign and one that saw him miss 14 games with a broken tibia, Kelly scored just three times in his 34-game season.

In 2013, his stick went cold, and the play of the Bruins’ vaunted depth struggled. Especially once it was dealt the loss of fellow center and all-zone warrior, Gregory Campbell. But once last night’s contest went beyond the mandatory-60, Kelly and the B’s knew that it only took one, something they felt more than capable of providing.

“On any given night, someone can step up. Paille showed that tonight,” Kelly told reporters. “The bottom six have all played together at certain times. If it wasn't this year, last year, even the year before. We're all familiar with one another.

“I think Claude is just trying to find different chemistry with different guys, who's going on any given night. Claude has a pretty good feel for his players. I think our line got thrown together, I don't know, end of the first, beginning of the second.”

Proving their worth as a strong enough third line to throw out there in overtime, and rewarding their embattled top-six with the goal to take the increasing weight off their shoulders, it’s clear that the trio of varying styles gave the B’s life in a must-win Game 2, and should be a lock for the rest of the series.

More on the this monster of a series tonight...
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