Boston Bruins left wing Daniel Paille (20) celebrates with his teammates after scoring the game winning goal in overtime.(Photo Scott Stewart USA TODAY Sports)
CHICAGO Resilience has been as important to the Boston Bruins' success this postseason as Tuukka Rask's saves and David Krejci's points.
The Bruins' remarkable ability to recover from periods of poor performance was in play again Saturday in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final when they were outshot 19 4 in the first period and then came back to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 2 1 on a goal by role player Daniel Paille at 13 48 of overtime.
As soon as I got it off I knew I had a good shot Paille said. I was just glad it went it. ... We all knew we had a terrible first period.
The best of seven series is tied 1 1 heading to Boston for Games 3 and 4 on Monday and Wednesday.
BOX SCORE Bruins 2 Blackhawks 1 (OT)
Although Chicago had the wide margin in shots in the first period the Blackhawks managed to claim only a 1 0 lead on a goal by Patrick Sharp at 11 22. As been his postseason custom Rask kept the Bruins in a position to recover.
We were definitely in survival mode there for a bit said Rask who has given up one goal or no goals in six of his last seven starts.
The Blackhawks came away believing they should have scored more goals in that period given how much the puck was in their possession.
We had the perfect start to the game Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said then we stopped doing what made us successful. We stood around. They countered.
Bruins coach Claude Julien said he had a bit of a chat with his players after the first period.
I thought in the second (period) we started turning it around Julien said. Third same thing. We got better as the game went on. Overtime that was the best. We had a lot of scoring chances there. Like I told our guys we got to show up on time for these kind of games. It could have cost us tonight.
In Game 1 the Chicago's energy line produced a goal by Andrew Shaw to win the game and in Game 2 it was Boston's third line that produced both of Boston's goals. On the game winner Boston defenseman Adam McQuaid won a puck battle with Chicago's Brandon Bollig and sent the puck to Tyler Seguin.
Seguin spied Paille in the slot and fed him a perfect pass that was quickly buried for Paille's third goal of the postseason.
The Bruins had tied it at 14 58 of the second period after Paille gaining the puck behind the Chicago danced around Chicago defenseman Nick Leddy to get in front. Chicago goalie Corey Crawford stopped his attempt to stuff in the net but Chris Kelly drove home the rebound. It was his first goal in 18 playoff games.
I thought (our line) was moving pretty well said Seguin. And we were competing and when (Kelly) got that goal he was playing with a huge amount of confidence and was making it pretty easy to play with him. Paille was bringing a lot of speed. I thought the chemistry was building.
Kelly called his goal a five guy effort.
Andrew (Ference) made a pinch Tyler was in on the play and got it to Daniel and Daniel took it to the net Kelly said. I just happened to be there tapped it in.
With Gregory Campbell out for the rest of the season with a broken leg the Bruins are looking for their other role players to step up.
I had hoped to (start scoring) Kelly said. You try to analyze your game after each game you know try to see if you had opportunities. I felt in the Pittsburgh series even the Rangers series the scoring chances were starting to come a little bit more frequently those bounces were starting to kind of go my way. Obviously it takes time. Like I said I'd love to contribute on a regular basis but I haven't. But you try to do other things.
Clearly the Blackhawks aren't demoralized.
Another overtime game that could have gone either way Sharp said. I think that's what we have to expect in this series.
TOP PHOTOS FROM THE STANLEY CUP FINAL
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