On his "mission to win the Stanley Cup in 2013", German international Dennis Seidenberg and his Boston Bruins have suffered a serious setback.
The bitter 5:6 home defeat after overtime against the Chicago Blackhawks has made the big order title win much more difficult. Instead of a possible 3:1 lead in the "best-of-seven" final series of the North American professional ice hockey league NHL, the score is now 2:2. Bruins also lost home-ice advantage in series with loss in front of home crowd. The fifth game will be played in Chicago on Saturday, with game six in Boston on Monday. In a decisive seventh game, the Blackhawks would have home rights again next Wednesday.
"It was not a typical game for us. We made a lot of mistakes, defensively we weren’t stable enough and we caught some counters," analyzed Seidenberg, who again got the most ice time of his team with 30:25 minutes. The 31-year-old was also a long way from his best form and made several blunders on the night. "That was not a good game on my part. Now we have a best-of-three series. We just have to play smarter," said Seidenberg, who won the Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011.
Also Boston’s goalkeeper Tuukka Rask was completely served. "It’s no fun. We fought back again and again – but we didn’t get our rewards," the Finn said. "We have made it too difficult for ourselves. That was not our best night. We can play much better on the defensive."The Blackhawks, Stanley Cup champions in 2010, led 1-0, 3-1, 4-2 and then again 5-4, but thanks to brilliant morale, the Bruins always managed to tie the game up. With 9:51 minutes left in overtime, Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook finally scored the decisive goal. "It was exciting," opined Seabrook. "But at the end of the day, only one win counts, and we need to get two more."
It was the third game in this finals series that was decided in overtime. And also the first final game since 1982 that ended with more than ten goals with an extra shift. The last time more than ten goals were scored was in the 6:5 between the New York Islanders and the Vancouver Canucks. For Boston, it was its first home loss in the playoffs after seven straight wins.