Tyler Seguin scores game-winner as Boston Bruins defeat Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in shootout-NHL Update
Boston’s 19-year-old rookie centre, Tyler Seguin, took charge yet again and led the Stanley Cup defending Bruins to victory over Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2, by scoring the winning goal in a shootout, Saturday night, October 15, in an overcrowded United Center
in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Playing against the 2010 Stanley Cup champions, it was fun for the Bruins who had lost two straight matches previously against Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes, finally snapping their losing streak.
"It's always fun to play here", said Boston goalie Tim Thomas, who made 27 saves and all three in the shootout. "The national anthem singer is great. There's 22,000 fans and some arenas can't even hold that many. It's a fun atmosphere … an Original Six atmosphere".
Blackhawks were playing without their forward, Marian Hossa, who is at the moment suffering a minor upper-body injury, but it was 25-year-old winger, Viktor Stalberg, who was cleared to make a comeback after suffering a knee injury during the preseason and
took Hossa’s place.
Getting his 300th National Hockey League (NHL) career win for his record, Boston Bruins head coach, Claude Julien, could not help but see how much the environment had affected his teams’ game-play.
"I just thought we got better as the game went on, and by the third period we looked a lot more like our team", Julien said. "So that was good. I thought we did a great job of fighting through what we've been talking about the last couple of days".
Bryan Bickell sent the 20,000 plus crowd into a wild roar by scoring the opening goal of the match, 16:21 into the first unassisted on a breakaway with the puck.
Bickell was followed by Chris Kelly early into the second period shorthanded as Boston lost Nathan Horton 24 seconds in due to a minor penalty for goalkeeper interference.
Patrick Kane made the tie-breaker nearly a minute later for the last goal of the period, sending Bruins into the final period down by one.
Killing two penalties in the third and final period of regulation, Thomas managed to keep Blackhawks out of the net as Nathan Horton scored his first of the regular season and levelled the match with 12:04 remaining and got another chance with a forced overtime.
A shootout was inevitable after a fruitless overtime extension as Seguin scored the only goal on Boston’s attempt while Chicago failed on all three chances.
Bruins return home for their matchup against Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, while Blackhawks play against Phoenix Coyotes the same day.
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