In Game 3 at TD Garden, the Bruins submitted a ruthless 60-minute performance of execution to claim a 2-0 shutout win. Daniel Paille and Patrice Bergeron scored in the second period.
The Bruins now have a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is at the Garden on Wednesday.
End of second period: Bruins, 2-0: The Bruins beat Corey Crawford twice in the second period to take a 2-0 lead.
Prior to the first goal, Crawford stopped a Tyler Seguin shot. Nick Leddy was first on the rebound. But Chris Kelly muscled Leddy off the puck. After winning the battle, Kelly threw the puck out front to Daniel Paille. The left wing beat Crawford at 2:13 to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. It was Paille’s second goal in two games.
The Bruins took a 2-0 lead on a Patrice Bergeron power-play goal. Dave Bolland was called for tripping at 12:00. At 13:50, Niklas Hjalmarsson was forced to haul down Paille when the left wing had a close-range chance.
Chicago killed off Bolland’s penalty. But the Bruins took advantage of Hjalmarsson’s infraction. Jaromir Jagr, handling the puck down low on the right side, threaded a Marc Savard-like cross-crease pass to Bergeron. Before Crawford could slide over, Bergeron slammed the puck home at 14:05.
End of first period: 0-0: The Bruins, blitzed in the first period of Game 2, submitted a far crisper start in Game 3. Although neither team scored, the Bruins didn’t give up the handful of Grade-A chances they allowed in the opening 20 minutes of Game 2.
The Bruins had a good scoring chance late in the first when Zdeno Chara connected with Brad Marchand on a long-distance pass. Marchand tried to pull the puck to his backhand. But the puck rolled off Marchand’s blade before he could put a shot on goal. Marchand broke his stick on the boards when he returned to the bench.
The Bruins dominated the faceoff circle in the first. The Bruins won 17 of 22 faceoffs. Patrice Bergeron went 10 for 11. Michal Handzus lost all eight draws he took.
At the end of warmups, Zdeno Chara took out Milan Lucic. Both hit the deck hard and lost their helmets. Neither player was injured.
Marian Hossa was a late scratch. The top-line right wing participated in warmups. But former Boston College forward Ben Smith replaced Hossa. Chicago rolled out a first line of Jonathan Toews between Marcus Kruger and Michael Frolik.
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