Lindholm's OT Snap Shot Rescues Boston After Chicago's Third-Period Surge

Boston trailed 4-2 with under seven minutes left in regulation and still found a way to win. Elias Lindholm ended it at 2:32 of overtime, snapping home his fifth goal of the season off a Charlie McAvoy feed to give the Bruins a 5-4 victory over Chicago on Halloween night.

The Blackhawks drew first blood at 6:04 of the first period when Anton Frondell — set up by Patrick Kane and Connor Bedard — snapped one past Michael DiPietro to put Chicago up 1-0. That goal shifted the score margin from even to -1 for Boston, and it set the tone for a game the Bruins would spend chasing. David Pastrnak tied it at 13:05 of the first with his eighth of the year, but Frondell answered again early in the second — this time deflecting one past DiPietro at 3:31 to restore Chicago's lead at 2-1. Casey Mittelstadt knotted it again at 12:34 of the second with his fifth goal, assisted by James Hagens, and for a moment it looked like this might be a tight, back-and-forth affair heading into the third.

It wasn't. Chicago took control in the third period in a way that looked, for all the world, like a closing argument. Ryan Greene made it 3-2 at 9:38, then Bedard buried a backhand at 12:20 — assisted by Ryan Donato and Roman Kantserov — to push it to 4-2. At that point, the Blackhawks appeared to have this game locked. Frondell finished with two goals and two points, Bedard added a goal and an assist for two points of his own, and Chicago's offense had outscored Boston 3-0 in the third through nearly 13 minutes of play. Arvid Soderblom had stopped 27 of 32 shots in net for the Blackhawks.

Then Boston did something remarkable. Mason Lohrei cut it to 4-3 at 13:06, assisted by JJ Peterka and Tanner Jeannot. With 12 seconds left in regulation — 19:48 on the clock — Morgan Geekie ripped a slap shot past Soderblom, with Charlie McAvoy and Peterka picking up the helpers, to force overtime at 4-4. The comeback looked improbable; the overtime winner looked inevitable. McAvoy, who finished with two assists on the night, set up Lindholm for the snap shot that ended it. On the other side, DiPietro was the story the Bruins needed him to be — 37 saves on 41 shots, keeping Boston alive long enough for the offense to bail him out. This one appears to be a confidence-builder for a Bruins group that refused to fold when Chicago had every reason to believe the game was over.