Bruins vs. Blackhawks Game 1 recap: Chicago wins in 3rd overtime

It took a couple of deflections to beat Tuukka Rask, but the Blackhawks managed to get it done.

By Nicholas Scibetta Jun 13, 2013, 1:15am EDT

After more than five-and-a-half complete periods of hockey, the Chicago Blackhawks finally beat the Boston Bruins to win Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, 4-3.

The Bruins had some great chances early in the third overtime period, including this beauty from Kaspars Daugavins:

But Corey Crawford proved unbeatable in the extra frames, and the Blackhawks won the game on a double-deflection goal that was ultimately credited to Andrew Shaw:

Let's take a look at the major areas we were watching in Game 1:

Matchups battle

As expected, Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg were tasked with defending the big guns for Chicago, and they were mostly successful in this role. Marian Hossa managed to get an assist, but other than that, Chicago's offense came from the team's lower lines.

Ice-time allocation

With triple-overtime, everyone played much more than usual, and the workhorses for each team were ridden hard. Seidenberg led the Bruins with 48:31, while Duncan Keith finished with 48:40 for the Blackhawks.

Goalie matchup

Tuukka Rask allowed more goals in this single game than he did in the entire series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but he did face 63 total shots. Corey Crawford made several key saves in the overtime periods to keep the game tied and finished with 51 saves.

Game 2 of the series is on Saturday in Chicago.