Bruins stunned by late collapse | The Salt Lake Tribune

Game 6 • Boston has victory snatched from its grasp.

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Boston • The Boston Bruins and goalie Tuukka Rask were less than 80 seconds away from a seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final.

Then it all fell apart.

"It's obviously shocking when you think you have everything under control," Rask said quietly, standing at his locker with a blue baseball cap on backward and a towel draped over his shoulders.

Bryan Bickell beat him with 1:16 left to tie the game, Dave Bolland did it again with 59 seconds to go and the Chicago Blackhawks pulled off a stunning comeback for a 3-2 win on Monday night and their second Stanley Cup championship in four seasons.

The Bruins' bid for their second title in three seasons ended in a flurry that left them wondering what went wrong.

Rask had been brilliant for most of the playoffs. And he was outstanding again for most of Monday night's game. Then he got little help from his teammates as he let in two costly goals.

Bickell scored when he got behind forward Milan Lucic and tapped in a pass across the slot from Chicago captain Jonathan Toews.

"It was a quick play out of the corner," said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, who was on the ice for 10 of the Blackhawks' final 12 goals in the series, including Bickell's equalizer. "I saw a guy coming to the net."

Then Bolland put the game-winner past Rask when he converted a shot deflected by Michael Frolik that went off the left post.

"It was a shot from the point. Deflection, rebound, goal. A lot of plays happen like that," Rask said.

And then his voice trailed off.

He and Chicago goalie Corey Crawford entered the game with identical 1.83 goals against averages in the playoffs. In the clincher, Crawford had 23 saves and Rask 28.

"I thought he was great all series," Crawford said. "A lot of the games took a life of their own. Sometimes we had shootouts, sometimes we had tight games, but he was there throughout. You see what it took to beat him tonight, a late flurry like that or we wouldn't be standing here."

Rask was spectacular in the Eastern Conference finals against the high-powered Pittsburgh Penguins.

"I'm really proud," Rask said. "I think a lot of people didn't expect us to go this far. We shocked the hockey world against Pittsburgh."