Grzelcyk, Ullmark Lift Bruins to Overtime Win in Chicago

CHICAGO - Linus Ullmark wasn't going to get too wrapped up into what Marc-Andre Fleury was doing at the other end of the ice. Yes, the three-time Stanley Cup champion was standing on his head, as the Bruins peppered him with chance after chance over the first 40 minutes. But the Boston backstop remained focused on putting up his own brick wall.
And that's exactly what he did.
Despite Fleury's all-world, 46-save outing, Ullmark was just as sharp despite having more than half the workload. The B's netminder made only 19 saves but highlight-reel stops on Kirby Dach's second-period breakaway attempt and Alex DeBrincat's third-period, point-blank chance helped pace Boston - along with Matt Grzelcyk's overtime winner - to a 2-1 victory at United Center on Tuesday night.

"Admiration is for after games, not during," Ullmark said of Fleury's performance. "It gets me a little bit fired up, obviously, because he's doing a tremendous job of stopping pucks and he's playing with a lot of energy - and he's done that for all of his years in the league. He's a great goaltender, that's it. But admiration [during the game], no. Afterwards now if we look at the game, I would say he was terrific tonight."
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy described Ullmark's performance as "under control" and pointed to the timeliness of his saves - chiefly his shorthanded robbery of DeBrincat's redirection of a nasty no-look, backhanded dish from Patrick Kane just 11 seconds into the third - as crucial to Boston's overtime triumph.
"He seemed square…he was tracking them well," said Cassidy. "I thought he was ready to recover. They don't take a high volume of shots, or at least that wasn't their strategy tonight…timely save on the breakaway, was it Dach in the second period? It's 0-0 and we're pushing and all of a sudden, they're in on a breakaway. That can be deflating.
"Those are the moments when you outshoot a team by a lot and they have 15-16 shots, you forget about some of those saves and that was a big one for us."

Ullmark was playing his first game since March 7 as Jeremy Swayman has slowly started to take over leading duties between the Black & Gold's pipes. But even with limited time in the net of late, the 28-year-old is maintaining a positive outlook.
"I've been there before," said Ullmark, whose only blemish was Brandon Hagel's tying deflection at 9:36 of the third. "This is what I did early in my career, not playing as much as the other one. I'm very happy for Sway at the moment because he's doing a terrific job of bringing it every night, every day as well. As long as he does that and has that smile of his, I can't complain. As long as we're winning, that's what I'm happy about."

Grzelcyk Grabs Winner

Grzelcyk notched his first career overtime goal when he took a Taylor Hall feed and ripped a wrister by Fleury with 1:40 gone in the extra frame to seal the 2-1 victory. The blue liner complimented the skill of Hall and David Pastrnak for opening up the space for him low in the right-wing circle on the winning tally.
"We made a good change to start which is big in OT," said Grzelcyk. "You want to force turnovers; we got a couple there and then held onto the puck. Even if there's not a whole lot going on then, you're stressing the other team just to go out there and play D a little bit.
"I just wanted to get open for Hallsy and Pasta, two unbelievable players and I know they're gonna find me, they're gonna find open space. I know they're super creative, so wanted to move away from the blue line a little bit just to open up a little space there and Hallsy made a great play there at the end just sucking the guy over and I had all day."
Hall's helper was his second assist of the night, giving him 400 for his career. The milestone came shortly after Hall narrowly escaped serious injury after taking a skate to the left side of his face as the Bruins battled in front of the Chicago net on Patrice Bergeron's tally at 4:43 of the third period. Hall, who was just outside the crease, was struck in the cheek but remained on the bench as he was tended to by the B's training staff.
"He's a really tough kid," said Grzelcyk. "Seemed like he was bleeding all night, he's had a tough go getting some high sticks. I think that one might have been a skate there. Happy he's all right. Those guys are going really well right now offensively especially so it's fun to play with him."

Upon Further Review

The Bruins appeared to score the go-ahead goal late in the third period when Charlie Coyle deposited a wrist shot by Fleury, but the marker was immediately disallowed by the on-ice officials for goaltender interference. Boston challenged, but even with replays showing that Chicago defenseman Riley Stillman was the player to knock Fleury to his feet, the call was upheld following video review. After the game, Cassidy was still confused by the decision.
"I didn't like the call at all," said Cassidy. "I've watched it 10 times and I still don't see where there's interference. I see their guy going into their goalie. I think Smitty might have touched his blocker - and that's a might - and that was before the shot. It didn't affect his ability to play the position in my opinion. Thankfully we got the kill and got a chance to win it in overtime. I thought it was a good goal all day long."
Due to the lost challenge, the Bruins were forced to go to the penalty kill, a situation that Cassidy normally would not have risked putting his team in.
"Typically, I wouldn't challenge it with five minutes to go but I just thought it was so obvious that it was a goal that they just mistook maybe Smitty for their guy who slid into him, their own guy, 61, and we didn't affect 61's path to the goalie," said Cassidy. "He kind of turned and pivoted and lost his footing. For me, I just thought that's one they would [overturn]. The National Hockey League is always looking for more offense and I thought that was certainly a good goal. I imagine at some point, we'll make a phone call to find out what exactly they saw."
Despite the controversial outcome, the Bruins did not sulk and remained focused on securing the two points, which they did when Grzelcyk rifled home a no-doubter early in extra time.
"Some teams might panic a little bit…honestly, I think a lot of guys had a feeling it might come back even though it looked clean," said Grzelcyk. "You sort of just have a feel for those things a little bit. Wasn't shocked by it. Still think it was a really good challenge. I think it was a good goal a little bit…coaching staff had a good message, put it behind us, let's keep going…we're going really well right now, stick with it and good things will happen."