Bruins blank Blackhawks for 2-1 series lead
BOSTON — The Boston Bruins have beaten the Chicago Blackhawks 2-0 to take a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup finals.
Daniel Paille and Patrice Bergeron scored in the second period and Tuukka Rask posted his third shutout of the playoffs by turning aside 28 shots Monday night, moving the Bruins within two wins of their second NHL championship in three years.
The Blackhawks suffered a key loss moments before the game when high-scoring forward Marian Hossa was scratched from the lineup after being hit by a puck during warm-ups.
Bryan Bickell nearly scored for Chicago, but his shot hit the right post with 42 seconds left.
Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Wednesday night in Boston with the series shifting to Chicago on Saturday night.
MARCHAND DRAWS THE LINE
Brad Marchand is known in Boston as the “Little Ball of Hate,” a nickname that captures his stature — he’s listed at 5-foot-9 — and his tendency to get on the nerves of opposing players.
An offensive threat who led the Bruins in scoring in the regular season, Marchand entered Monday night’s Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals tied for the team lead in penalty minutes.
But he’s yet to get sent to the box in the finals against the Chicago Blackhawks. Give him time. “I haven’t really tried to do a whole lot,” he said. “I’m just trying to play the game. Everyone is so caught up in trying to antagonize guys and stuff like that; it just doesn’t happen like that. It comes with the game and you have to react to different situations.”
Marchand was asked after Monday morning’s skate what the difference is between a dirty player and one who is just tough.
“When you’re getting suspensions and stuff like that, that’s playing dirty,” he said. “You play hard, a lot of things happen in a game. But I don’t think anybody is out there trying to injure guys.”
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said he understood that Marchand was just “doing his job.”
YOUTHFUL TOEWS
In 2006, Jonathan Toews was an 18-year-old star waiting to be chosen near the top of the NHL draft. During the Stanley Cup finals that year, he was one of the leading prospects who attended a game, a practice the NHL began in 1994.
He was the third player drafted seven years ago, then won the cup with Chicago in 2010. Now, as captain of the Blackhawks, Toews has another chance in their series against the Boston Bruins. Before Game 3 on Monday night, with the series tied at one game apiece, four of the top prospects in the draft scheduled for June 30 visited TD Garden.
“It was a special one,” Toews said of his visit to the series between the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers. “It’s weird to think of 2006. The time has flown by.”
The four prospects at Monday’s game were defensemen Seth Jones of Portland of the Western Hockey League and Darnell Nurse of Sault Ste. Marie of the Ontario Hockey League, and two players from Halifax of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League: center Nathan MacKinnon and left wing Jonathan Drouin.
Other players in the series who attended Stanley Cup finals as prospects are Boston’s Wade Redden in 1995, Nathan Horton in 2003, Tyler Seguin in 2010 and Dougie Hamilton in 2011 and Chicago’s Patrick Kane in 2007.