Sports

Kane’s two goals lift Blackhawks over Bruins in Game 5 of Stanley Cup

CHICAGO — Patrick Kane scored two goals, and the Blackhawks beat the Bruins 3-1 to take a 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup finals Saturday night.

Dave Bolland added an empty netter from center ice with 13.6 seconds left, and the Blackhawks moved within a win of their second championship in four years.

They will try to wrap it up at Boston Monday.

In a series that has seen three games go to overtime, this one had its tense moments, and both teams were without star players down the stretch.

Boston’s Patrice Bergeron skated gingerly off the ice in the second period and was taken by ambulance to a hospital with an undisclosed injury, a huge blow for the Bruins.

Chicago’s Jonathan Toews, meanwhile, sat out the third period after getting clobbered by Johnny Boychuk late in the second.

The Blackhawks still had enough to get by, with Kane scoring in each of the first two periods. Now Chicago is one win away from the title, while the Bruins will need to force a seventh game if they’re going to keep their hopes alive for a second Cup in three seasons.

Boston’s Zdeno Chara cut it to one less than four minutes into the third after David Krejci centered the puck from behind the net. Chara, who has one league’s hardest shots, unleashed a bullet from the left circle that sailed past Corey Crawford’s glove to make it 2-1 with 16:20 remaining.

The Bruins nearly tied it with 2:20 left when Crawford stopped Jaromir Jagr after the puck careened around in front of the net, but the Blackhawks hung on.

The first championship series between Original Six franchises since 1979 has been nothing short of thrilling, with only one game being decided in regulation and the teams splitting the first four.

With Kane leading the way, the Blackhawks looked good in this one. He now has nine goals in the postseason after scoring late in the first period and early in the second.

Both teams missed some chances in the early going. But Kane finally gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead with 2:33 left in the first, after a shot by Johnny Oduya closing in from the left point sheared the blade off the stick of Boston defenseman Dennis Seidenberg.

Kane, who was to the left of the net, picked up the spinning puck and tucked it past Tuukka Rask into the lower left corner of the net. All that happened after Toews muscled past Milan Lucic to carry the puck deep into the Boston zone.

The Blackhawks pushed the pace in the second, outshooting Boston 11-5 in the period and igniting the crowd in the process. Kane really had them roaring when he struck again just over five minutes in.

The puck flipped out to him on the right side and he buried it from close range after Bryan Bickell got stopped from the left wing, picked up the rebound and skated around the net. That gave Kane three goals in the past two games.

For Boston, things didn’t get much better after that.

Bergeron played just two shifts in the period and skated slowly to the bench. When asked about that during a break in play, coach Claude Julien wouldn’t provide any details.

“Let’s just say right now we’re going to give him some time,” he told NBC.

Bergeron was taken to a Chicago hospital for observation. It wasn’t clear what Bergeron’s injury is, or even when he was hurt. But he played just 49 seconds in the second period.