Bruins Rout Blackhawks, 6-2
CHICAGO (AP) — Patrice Bergeron opened the scoring with his 200th goal, then added two assists in Boston's four-goal second period and the Bruins snapped a season-high six-game losing streak with a 6-2 rout of the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.
Reilly Smith had a goal and assist for the Bruins, who were 0-4-2 during the slide, their longest winless stretch since 2010. Loui Eriksson, Milan Lucic, Gregory Campbell and Dougie Hamilton also scored for Boston, which pulled away in the finale of five-game road trip.
Jonathan Toews and Bryan Bickell scored for the Blackhawks, who have lost three straight (0-2-1) for the first time since last March. The six goals against Chicago matched a season high and the four against the Blackhawks in the second set a season mark for a period.
Boston's Tuukka Rask made 26 saves and coasted to the win, despite taking two penalties late in the first period.
Chicago starting goalie Corey Crawford was pulled midway through the second after allowing four goals on 14 shots. Antti Raanta finished and stopped 14 of 16 shots.
The Blackhawks played most of the game with just five defensemen after Johnny Oduya left the game in the first period after being hit along the boards by Lucic.
Bergeron opened the scoring 3:00 in from the edge of the crease when he tapped in Smith's cross-ice feed. Smith had a hard time controlling a pass from Brad Marchand, but spun and flipped a perfect pass in front in one motion.
Eriksson made it 2-0 during a power play at 14:03 of the first on a tip-in of Torey Krug's drive from the left circle.
But Rask got himself and the Bruins in trouble briefly as the period ended.
The Boston goalie was assessed a delay of game penalty when he ventured outside the trapezoid area behind the net to play the puck with 8 seconds left in the first.
Toews' power-play tip-in directly from the ensuing faceoff — with 1.4 seconds left in the period — cut it to 2-1.
When Rask smashed his goal stick in anger against the left post, he also clipped Chicago's Kris Versteeg. The goalie was whistled for slashing on the play, but the Bruins killed off the penalty.
Boston took charge of the game in the second, connecting four times against listless Chicago.
Lucic gave Boston a 3-1 lead at 6:18. He had difficulty controlling David Pastrnak's centering pass, but Lucic kept plowing through traffic down the slot and eventually muscled the puck past Crawford.
Campbell made it 4-1 at 12:19 of the second on a shot through traffic from about 30 feet in the slot. Raanta took over in net after the score.
Hamilton increased Boston's lead to 5-1 from the faceoff with 2:33 left in the period when his drive clanked in off the right post for a power-play score. Smith then beat Raanta from the right circle with 3.1 seconds left in the period.
Bickell had the only goal in the third, a tip-in with 5:42 left, to complete the scoring.
NOTES: Boston center David Krejci missed the game with a lower-body injury, suffered in a 5-1 loss at St. Louis on Friday, but accompanied the team to Chicago. Ryan Spooner was recalled from AHL Providence to take his place and assisted on Lucic's goal. The Bruins also sent G Malcolm Subban to Providence. Subban, the younger brother of Montreal star P.K. Subban, gave up three goals on six shots in his NHL debut in Friday's loss to the Blues. . Bruins forward Daniel Paille was a healthy scratch for the second straight game. ... The Blackhhawks inserted D David Rundblad into the lineup in place of D Kyle Kumiskey, who skated in the past four games following his recall from AHL Rockford. F Ben Smith and D Tim Erixon also were healthy scratches for Chicago.
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