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Bruins grab early lead, hang on vs. Blackhawks

Dec 30, 2006 - 8:38 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Patrice Bergeron capped an impressive outburst for the Boston Bruins, and the tally proved to be just enough.

Bergeron finished a four-goal spurt late in the second period and the Bruins managed to hang on for a 5-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Bruins won for the fourth time in their last five games.

"We knew with them down 4-0, they were going to attack, and they sure did that and got back in the game," Boston coach Dave Lewis said. "Our guys found a way to win, and a couple of months ago, we might have lost that game."

"I think we came out thinking it would be easy with Boston struggling a little bit lately, then we just floated around a little bit," Chicago defenseman James Wisniewski said. "Every team works hard now, and if you don't do that for 60 minutes, you will get beat."

With Boston ahead, 3-0, on first-period tallies by Glen Murray, Mark Mowers and defenseman Milan Jurcina, Bergeron cashed in on a power-play attempt with 4:53 to go in the second. After receiving a pass from Marco Sturm, Bergeron snapped a shot past goaltender Brian Boucher to extend his points streak to 10 games and give the Bruins a seemingly commanding lead.

However, Chicago rallied in the final session, scoring three times in a 4:19 span to pull within 4-3. Wisniewski began the comeback attempt 95 seconds into the period, former Bruin Bryan Smolinski tallied 45 seconds later and Denis Arkhipov scored at 5:54.

"We were buzzing pretty good that first 12 minutes of the third period," Chicago coach Denis Savard said. "I shortened up the bench, and that's a lot to ask down 4-0. We got fatigued playing eight forwards and only three or four defensemen. We didn't get the result we wanted, but I saw some good signs again."

"It's about time," Wisniewski said of his tally. "Twenty games with no goals, and now I finally get one, and hopefully I'll get a few more."

Marc Savard sealed the win with an empty-netter and Tim Thomas made 37 saves for Boston.

"I am sure it was entertaining for the fans on how (the Blackhawks) came back," said Thomas, who has appeared in 30 of Boston's 35 games this season. "But this game was a big win because we pulled it out at the end."

Chicago, which entered with the worst home power play in the league, went 0-for-5 with the extra skater. Boston was 2-for-8.