Blackhawks survive penalties, close calls, to take 1-0 series lead

Nam Huh | Associated Press

At the stroke of midnight, Tuuka Rask turned into a pumpkin.

Okay, maybe not... but it must have felt like that as the game-winning goal was scored at the stroke of Midnight Central Time as the Chicago Blackhawks survive two too many men on the ice penalties to beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 in triple overtime.

But before they survived those penalties, they needed to come back from two 2 goal deficits.  Milan Lucic netted the first two goals of the game to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead, but Brandon Saad came back nearly 2 minutes later with his first of the playoffs.

In the 3rd Period, the Bruins made it a two-goal lead again with Patrice Bergeron's 6th of the playoffs, on the power play.  But Dave Bolland cut the deficit to two less than two minutes later, and Johnny Oduya tied things with 7:46 left to play in the 3rd.

Both teams played with a lot of intensity in the first overtime, bringing many tense moments for fans, including a scare for Blackhawks fans 7 1/2 minutes into overtime when the Bruins came so close to winning it.

And this moment in the 2nd overtime where Chicago, trying to kill the second of their too many men on the ice penalties, with Zdeno Chara hitting iron.

Or this moment in the 3rd overtime where Kaspars Daugavins had the opportunity to end the marathon, but saw Johnny Oduya hit the puck enough to prevent what would be an open net goal.

Finally, Andrew Shaw brought an end to the marathon with a redirect of a redirect, beating Rask at Midnight to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 series lead.  He then had a slip of the tongue in an interview with NBC's Pierre McGuire.

Rask stopped 59 of the 63 shots he faced, and Corey Crawford stopped 51 of the 54 shots he faced.

Game 2 is Saturday night at 8:00PM.