Johnny Boychuk's name was conspicuously absent on the list of the three stars for the Bruins' 3-2 shootout win Saturday night in Chicago, but the Boston defenseman's stellar all-around game didn't go unnoticed.
"He had a great game tonight," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "I thought Johnny was a real good player for us, and I thought it was fitting that he set up that tying goal, but he was one of many that we thought really picked up their game tonight."
The Bruins were in desperate need of a pickup, having dropped back-to-back games to fall to 1-3-0 on the season. And now on Saturday, they were facing the prospect of playing a talented Blackhawks team in a hostile environment in Chicago trying to salvage one win on their first road trip of the year.
"We knew that you don't want to lose three games in a row," Boychuk said. "We've been on the road for a couple games and we wanted to make sure we at least came out with a split after that first loss."
Boychuk did his best to make sure of that. His end-to-end rush to set up Nathan Horton's tying goal in the third was the signature moment of the comeback, but Boychuk had contributed plenty before that.
With Adam McQuaid out injured and rookie Matt Bartkowski playing just 5:32, the Bruins spent most of the night with just five defensemen in their regular rotation. Despite being shaken up early in the game when he was jammed hard into the boards by Chicago forward Daniel Carcillo and nailed with a slap shot off the stick of Blackhawks blueliner Duncan Keith, Boychuk played a season-high 21:48 and made the most of the extra time.
He was the only player on either side to finish a plus-2, while adding three shots, a blocked shot and a team-high six hits. The Bruins needed to be more physical after coming out flat in Carolina, and they responded with a season-best 40 hits as a team. They had 16 hits in the first period alone after managing just 12 in the entire game against the Hurricanes.
And then there's that play to set up the tying goal. Boychuk began a breakout by passing the puck to himself off the boards. He then chased the puck all the way into the Chicago zone, corralling it below the goal line, swept around behind the net and fed a pass out to Horton in the left slot for the one-timer to make it 2-2 at 7:56 of the third.
"I just wanted to get the puck in deep," Boychuk said. "I knew I had him beat to get to the puck and I saw Nate on the other side so I went around the net and gave it to him so he could put it in the net."
Horton ended up being selected as the No. 1 star for scoring his first goal of the season, but that wouldn't have been possible without one of Boychuk's many big plays on the night.
