Bruins beat Blackhawks 2-1 in OT to tie series at 1-1

CHICAGO — The Chicago Blackhawks unleashed an avalanche of shots in the early going and couldn’t bury the Boston Bruins.

They paid for it in the end.

Now, they can forget about home-ice advantage, not to mention the lead in the Stanley Cup finals.

Daniel Paille fired a shot past Corey Crawford’s glove to give the Bruins a 2-1 overtime victory on Saturday night and tie the series at 1-1 with Game 3 coming up Monday night in Boston.

“You’ve got to kind of swallow this one and move on,” said Patrick Sharp, who scored his ninth goal of the postseason. “We know what’s on the line in this series and going into Boston’s going to be tough, but we’re ready for the challenge. We’ll find a way to be better for Game 3.”

The Blackhawks squeezed out a 4-3 triple-overtime thriller in Game 1 but couldn’t pull this one out, with their stars and their power play once again invisible.

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane were quiet again, just as they were in the opener, and the Blackhawks couldn’t take advantage when they had the advantage. They were 0 for 3 on the power play for the second straight game and are now 7 for 57 in the postseason.

They can’t blame Crawford. He was just fine in net, stopping 26 shots.

The problem was the Blackhawks couldn’t convert and, looking tired late in the game, made a series of blunders, including a turnover that led to Paille’s winning goal. They outshot Boston 35-28 for the game and really came out firing in the early going, blistering the Bruins 19-4 in the first period, but all they had to show for it was Sharp’s goal.

Just over a minute after he scored, Toews’ wraparound was stopped by Rask. Hossa appeared to poke the rebound in, but the whistle had sounded before the puck crossed the goal line with the goalie covering it.

Otherwise, Rask was simply outstanding in net again, getting through that early siege and finishing with 33 saves.

“It does get frustrating,” Chicago’s Dave Bolland said. “You’re getting pucks at the net. Things aren’t going in. You do get a sense of frustration. That frustration, you have to leave it alone and you’ve got to keep throwing it at the net. You hit a hot goalie, you hit a hot goalie.”