The Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins played a hard fought Game 3 after the Bruins won the first two on the road to go up 2-0 and after the 1-1 game went into an overtime period, the two teams needed another extra frame to decide the matchup and the Bruins came out on top for a 3-0 series lead. The Chicago Blackhawks jumped out to a quick 2-0 series lead on the Los Angeles Kings in the western Conference Finals after winning the first two games at home, but the Stanley Cup champions quickly bounced back with a win in Game 3 to get the series at 2-1 with Game 4 Thursday.
The Blackhawks started off the season on a record streak after the lockout and now they have continued their strong play in the series with the first two wins against the Kings. Los Angeles won the Stanley Cup as the eighth seed in the playoffs last year and after going down 2-0 to the Blues in the first round, they are not worried about rallying from behind and now that they have the Game 3 victory they are ready to do so. The Blackhawks played strong in Game 2 and got goals from four different players, including Michal Handzus, Brent Seabrook and Bryan Bickell. The Kings got solid play from Tyler Toffoli and Jeff Carter, who scored his sixth goal, but that was all the team could muster.
In Game 2 Corey Crawford made a number of amazing saves and after being given a 2-0 lead in the first period he was hard to beat. The Kings got solid play from Jonathan Quick, but he missed too many easy shots and ended up with just 13 saves on the night. Seabrook has been playing well throughout the postseason and he was the one who scored the winning goal in Game seven in overtime against the Red Wings in the previous series and Chicago is hoping for more production from him on the back end along with Patrick Sharp, who has been leading the team in scoring.
The Kings were able to rebound in Game 3 with goals in the first, second and third periods to take the 3-1 win to bring the series to 2-1 and now they will get the chance on Thursday to even things up. The Blackhawks got their lone goal from Bickell, while the Kings spread the love around with three players scoring the three goals, including Justin Williams and Slava Voynov from the backline. Dwight King had his first goal of the playoffs and Quick came through in the win with 19 saves, while Crawford added 25 in the defeat.
The Blackhawks need more scoring as things go to Game 4 and Patrick Sharp still leads the team in points with 14 and goals with eight, while Duncan Keith is tops with nine assists. The Kings have gotten strong play from their two best players, as Jeff Carter leads with 11 points and six goals, while Mike Richards is tops with eight assists. The Penguins and Bruins are playing Game 3 of their Eastern conference series and Sidney Crosby and company are looking for a big win after going down 2-0 in the series, including a 6-1 loss in Game 2. The team needs more scoring and the Bruins look unbeatable and if they win on Wednesday they will take a 3-0 lead in the series that could be too much for the team to handle.
