The Chicago Blackhawks and the Boston Bruins played a hear fought game on Wednesday night in the first matchup of the Stanley Cup finals and after Andrew Shaw scored in three overtimes, the Hawks had the 1-0 series lead heading into Game 2.

NBC was thrilled with the ratings for the game since it went into overtime and the numbers were up nearly 120 percent from last season and they are expected to go up more as the series goes on, as both Boston and Chicago are top 10 markets. The ratings for the first game had  6.358 million viewers, which were the most since back in 1997 when the Flyers and Red Wings got a higher number. It was up from last year's finals between the Kings and Devils and NBC's ratings are up across the board.

The network has been pushing the games hard and the channel is averaging over 3 million viewers during the playoffs, which is up compared to last season. The game on Wednesday night was amazing, as the 3-3 game stretched into a third overtime and saw the two goalies in Tuukka Rask and Corey Crawford stop over 100 shots combined.

Shaw added the winning goal on a deflection and that came after scores from Brandon Saad and Dave Bolland, while the Bruins got goals from Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron. The Bruins are ready to bounce back and they have done that already his playoffs, including when they were down 4-2 against the Maple Leafs with 90 seconds to play in Game 7.

"To tell you the truth, (I) fall asleep around 3:00. Woke up early," shrugged Blackhawks' Slovakian forward Marian Hossa. "I think my neighbor decided he (was) going to drill in the morning.

"You know, hopefully (he) is going to get his message for next time, he won't drill.

"We are lucky, we got extra day, you know, to recharge the batteries and get back on Game Two."