Charlie McAvoy, Sean Kuraly respond in Bruins win over Blackhawks

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GOLD STAR: Charlie McAvoy continued a stretch of dominant play for the Bruins with an overtime game-winner that represented his first goal of the season in his 52nd game of the year. It hasn’t been easy for McAvoy to go through such a dry spell as an offensive defenseman, but he’s been excellent since coming back from the break while ratcheting up the offense.

McAvoy had two assists and featured in both of Boston’s first two goals in last night’s win over Vancouver and he followed that up by joining the rush and tapping in Jake DeBrusk’s pass in overtime to win the game for the Black and Gold. McAvoy finished with 22:02 of ice time, four shot attempts, a hit, two takeaways and two blocked shots in another heavy night’s work for the Bruins.

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BLACK EYE: Duncan Keith was not good for the Blackhawks. He finished on the ice for both of the goals allowed for Chicago. And it was Keith that got shrugged off the back of Sean Kuraly en route to him scoring in the second period while wheeling around the front of the net.

Keith finished a minus-2 in 26:40 of ice time, had four giveaways and didn’t factor into the offense at all as he continues to fall short of what he once was for the Blackhawks back in the day. Keith certainly wasn’t alone for a Blackhawks team that relied quite a bit on Robin Lehner to keep them in the game, but it’s also clear that on many nights Keith is a shadow of his former self.

TURNING POINT: The turning point was pretty clearly a hand pass called on Chicago in the closing minutes of the third period that negated a potential game-winning goal scored by Drake Caggiula for Chicago. Ensuing replays showed that perhaps the puck hit the stick after the hand pass, but it’s still unclear if it actually made contact or was an uninterrupted hand pass that deserved a whistle.

Either way, the refs blew the whistle in the immediate aftermath of the delayed penalty call leading to the negated goal, and everything that happened after that point didn’t count. That set things up for the overtime winner for the Bruins and left the Blackhawks feeling like they got hosed by a hand pass that shouldn’t have been called a hand pass.

HONORABLE MENTION: Sean Kuraly continues to respond in a big way to being scratched over the weekend. Kuraly scored the only Bruins goal during regulation play in the second period when he carried Keith on his back behind the net, and then curled around and fired a quick shot at the Chicago net that seemed to catch Robin Lehner by surprise. Kuraly also drew a holding penalty earlier in the game and finished with a goal, a plus-rating, five shots on net, seven shot attempts, one hit and one blocked shot in 12:29 of ice time for the Bruins.

Perhaps they have found a comfortable spot for him on the third line left wing rather than centering the fourth line where it felt like he wasn’t playing up to his capabilities this season.

BY THE NUMBERS: 5 – the number of wins in a row for the Bruins dating back to the Vegas home game before the break and including wins over Winnipeg, Minnesota, Vancouver and now Chicago since returning from NHL All-Star break and bye week break.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “As much as you don’t want to say it, you think about it. I said to these guys ‘thanks for keeping my confidence high.’ –Charlie McAvoy, on the goal-scoring struggle this season that didn’t see him score his first goal until February 5 in Chicago.

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