BOSTON, Massachusetts: Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook scored the game-winning goal 9:51 into overtime on Wednesday night to give the Blackhawks a 6-5 victory over Boston in the National Hockey League Final.
The victory snapped a seven-game Bruins’ win streak on home ice and pulled Chicago level at 2-2 in the best-of-seven showdown for the Stanley Cup, with game five on Saturday in Chicago and game six back in Boston on Monday.
“It feels nice to get this win. This was a big game,” Chicago’s Patrick Sharp said. “Never once did we doubt the character of our team. We knew we would bounce back. We’ve been through a lot on this team.”
Seabrook’s second overtime goal of the playoffs capped the third overtime game in the title series, the most since 1993 and second only to the record five overtime games played between Toronto and Detroit in the 1951 final.
“I just tried getting it on net,” Seabrook said. “We had a great screen in front and somehow it went in.”
There had been only 12 goals over the first three games of the final, but the clubs struck for 11 in game four alone, the last with attackers in front of the net to block the view of Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask.
“We talked for a couple days about getting in front of the goal, getting ugly goals,” Sharp said. “When he made the play at the blue line, a lot of guys on the bench knew it would go in.”
Finland’s Rask made 46 saves while Chicago netminder Corey Crawford denied 28 shots.
“One of those games,” Seabrook said. “We got a few goals. They had to answer that. They got a few on the power play and we got some bounces. It was nice to get a few past Tuukka.”
Chicago’s Michal Handzus opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal 6:48 into the game, but Rich Peverley’s power-play goal equalized for Boston with 5:17 remaining in the opening period.
The Blackhawks jumped back in front with a pair of goals only 2:08 apart, the first from playmaker Jonathan Toews and the next from Patrick Kane to give Chicago a 3-1 edge.
Boston answered on a Milan Lucic goal that, like the Bruins’ opening goal, came with only 5:17 remaining in the period.
Chicago stretched the lead when Marcus Kruger found the net with 4:28 to play in the second period, but Boston answered on a power-play goal from Patrice Bergeron 1:50 later to lift the Bruins within 4-3 entering the third period.
Bergeron scored 2:05 into the third period to deadlock the game, but the Blackhawks answered on Patrick Sharp’s power-play goal with 8:41 to play in regulation.
Only 55 seconds later Johnny Boychuck equalized for the Bruins to make it 5-5, and set the stage for overtime.
Bruins coach Claude Julien said his team, which never led, simply did not play well enough to win.
“Our guys battled hard enough to get us back in the game and get us into overtime, but I don’t think we played our best game,” Julien said.
“Our decision making wasn’t good at times and we didn’t move the puck as well as he had. Those are things that happen in the final, where you don’t feel like you played well enough to win and we didn’t.”
Now the Bruins will have to win at least once in Chicago to hoist the Stanley Cup for the second time in three seasons.
“There was a lot of our game that was average and average isn’t good enough at this stage of the season,” Julien said. “Hopefully that makes them hungrier in the next game.”
Blackhawks edge Bruins to level Stanley Cup Final
Blackhawks edge Bruins to level Stanley Cup Final
Rublev marches on, Bublik and Draper fall at Dubai Tennis Championships
- No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev, the 2022 champion, dispatches Ugo Humbert in epic three setter 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3
- Tallon Griekspoor upsets No. 2 seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets to set-up quarterfinal clash with No. 6 seed Jakub Mensik
DUBAI: Andrey Rublev signaled his determination to reclaim the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title on Wednesday, as the ruthless Russian dispatched fellow former champion Ugo Humbert in a titanic, three-set tussle on center court.
As a two-time finalist in Dubai and the winner there in 2022, Rublev already has fond memories of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium. Meanwhile Humbert, who has also tasted success in Dubai having edged Alexander Bublik to the title in 2024, was looking to tame a second former winner in the space of 24 hours after eliminating reigning champion Stefanos Tsitsipas on Tuesday.
In the early stages of the match a smattering of vocal young fans stirred up an endless cacophony of noise from all four grandstands as the near-capacity crowd repeatedly serenaded both players with cries of “Let’s go, Andrey” and “Allez, Ugo,” the even split among the supporters mirroring the evenly matched contest.
The nail-biter of a match went with serve for the first six games before, as is so often the case in professional tennis, the seventh proved to be a critical turning point. Rublev took advantage of two break points afforded by a pair of uncharacteristic double-faults by Humbert to achieve what Tsitsipas had failed to do in the entirety of their Round of 32 clash: he broke the Frenchman.
The set then resettled into a familiar pattern as the pair once again held serve amid minimal threats. And so, after 41 minutes of the back-and-forth, Rublev claimed the opening set 6-4 courtesy of that sole break of serve.
The second set mirrored the first, this time with both players avoiding a break of serve, until Humbert, the current world No. 37, narrowly edged the tiebreak 7-5 to even the match.
With very little separating the battling duo at this point, their seesaw duel was akin to two prize fighters exchanging punches with neither able to land a decisive blow. Buoyed no doubt by the feverish support from their respective fans, both players refused to buckle.
But then, with the third set tied at 1-1, Rublev held serve, broke and held again to win three straight games and move 4-1 ahead. The match then, predictably, once again went with serve until it was 5-3.
Then Humbert, facing the prospect of elimination, suddenly found himself with two break points as his opponent wobbled while serving for the match. The steely Russian held his nerve, however, and dispatched a trio of massive serves, including two aces, to reverse the deficit and set up his first match-point.
That was all the 28-year-old needed, as another huge serve forced a Humbert error and sealed the match 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
“It was a very dramatic ending,” Rublev said. “I’m really happy I was able to keep going and save the last game.
“It’s difficult to close a match; you can make a double-fault or a mistake, but I made three good serves and that helped me a lot. It’s much easier to win points from the serve than playing rallies every time.”
He commended his opponent, saying: “Ugo played really well. I took my two break chances but he served unbelievably all match. He shoots super hard and very fast, so it’s not easy to do something. I had to be ready for the one chance to break him in a set, and I got those chances and was able to do it.
“This match gives me a lot of confidence, so we’ll see what will happen in the quarterfinal. I’m playing well, so let’s see.”
Rublev now faces another Frenchmen, Arthur Rinderknech, who emerged victorious from a grueling three-set marathon against the British No. 4 seed, Jack Draper, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4.
Their match, which finished well after midnight and with an eerie mist hovering over center court, yielded only two breaks of serve, both of which went Rinderknech’s way. Despite the defeat, Draper can head home with his head held high as his return to top-level tennis continues after a six-month injury layoff.
On the new court 1, Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands pulled off the biggest upset of the day by taming No. 2 seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets 6-3, 7-5. The win earned the world No. 25 a quarterfinal encounter with No. 6 seed Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, who made short work of the Australian, Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2.
