An ol' fashioned Chicago strongarming

Boston welcomed its Irish cousin, Chicago, into town for a Blackhawks-Bruins showdown with open arms.

Those open arms would end up broken.

Less than four minutes into the game, Scott Gomez, Thug Extraordinaire if ever there was one, had benched Andrew Raycroft with a broken foot in what could only be described as a bizarrely run boarding penalty. This left John Grahame, who had not seen action in longer than GM Joshua Anderson's wife, in net for the first time in almost a month.

After Raycroft deflected the lone shot he faced, Grahame gave up five goals over the next fifty-six and a half minutes in a performance which can only be described as "rusty". Erik Rasmussen and Pavol Demitra scored twice in the first period to put the home team in the hole.

In the second period, the Bruins came out inspired. Andy Hilbert scored just his second of the season to narrow the deficit at 01:29 off a Brian Rolston feed, and Andy McDonald went shorthand to embarass Dan Cloutier less than two minutes later. Cloutier was left sprawled across the ice as McDonald fistpumped over him, celebrating his twelfth goal of the season and the game tying goal.

That would be the last moment of celebration for the Bruins.

Niklas Sundstrom scored just short of the ten minute mark to close the second period scoring, shortly after exiting the penalty box for his own boarding minor - the third of the game.

In the third period, it was all Blackhawks on the scoreboard, though the offensive struggles were near even. Chicago outshot Boston nine to eight, but scored twice for the final score of 5-2, as Petr Sykora and Jeremy Roenick added their sixteenthes of the season.

Sundstrom, Roenick, and Sykora swept the game stars as 14,893 gathered to watch the meeting of O6 teams.