A Stanley Cup Finals and run for the Ages

     The 2013 Stanley Cup Finals will be one of those finals that hockey historians will look back too somewhere down the future. It featured two Original Six teams play against each other for the first time since 1979, the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks. Both teams played terrific hockey but in the end one team had to prevail. The Blackhawks who won the Presidents Trophy this capped off their terrific season by winning their fifth cup and second in four seasons in six games. Here is how Chicago won it all this postseason.
    Their first round series against Minnesota was not as hard as their second round opponent, the Detroit Red Wings. Chicago were down three games to one and had to win three straight to advance. With some controversy in game seven, the Hawks advanced thanks to a overtime winner by Brent Seabrook. This set up a third round matchup against the Kings who had won it all last season. The Hawks were able to beat the depleted Kings roster thanks to some more overtime magic by Patrick Kane in double overtime of game five to set up the original six matchup almost every hockey fan wanted to see.
    Now the finals itself. There were four games that went down to the wire notably games one and six. Game one was one of the longest games in finals history requiring three overtimes to determine a winner. Andrew Shaw tipped the shot from the point to beat Tuukka Rask to give Chicago a 1-0 series lead. Game six was also gutwrenching due to the fact that after Milan Lucic made it 2-1 for the Bruins midway through the third, the Hawks tied it up with 1:16 on an one-timer from Bryan Bickell. 17 seconds after, in a mad scramble in front of the net, Dave Bolland tapped it in to give them a 3-2 lead they would not relinquish. Once time went up, all the Hawks were celebrating winning their fifth cup in franchise history. This was truly a classic series that probably will not happen in a very very long time.