Stanley Cup Final Three Stars: Kane scores, Crawford saves as Blackhawks win Game 5

·Contributing writer

June 23, 2013 at 12:18 a.m.

No. 1 Star: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks

Kane once again excelled up on a line with Jonathan Toews. The Blackhawks forward scored twice as Chicago moved a win away from the Stanley Cup with a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins in Game 5. His first goal of the game came via a fortunate bounce after Johnny Oduya's shot broke Dennis Seidenberg's stick:

No. 2 Star: Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks

After allowing five goals in Game 4, Crawford bounced back allowing only one in Game 5 and stopping 24 shots. Crawford is now 15-7-2 with a 1.83 goals against average and .932 save percentage.

No. 3 Star: Bryan Bickell, Chicago Blackhawks

The Blackhawks forward assisted on Kane's second goal and dished out six hits in the victory.

Honorable mention: Kane now has seven goals in his last seven games, two of which have been game-winners ... Tuukka Rask had to go full split to make this stop on Patrick Sharp:

It didn't matter where this beat Crawford, this bomb by Zdeno Chara was going in no matter where it was shot:

Did You Know? "Teams have split the first four games of the Final 22 times since the
best-of-seven format was introduced in 1939. The team winning Game 5 has
won the Cup 15 times (68.2%). However, the team losing Game 5 has rebounded
to win the series on four of the past six occasions (all since 2001)." (NHL)

Conn Smythe Watch: 1. Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks; 2. Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks; 3. David Krejci, Boston Bruins; 4. Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins; 5. Patrick Sharp, Chicago Blackhawks; 6. Marian Hossa, Chicago Blackhawks; 7. Bryan Bickell, Chicago Blackhawks; 8. Nathan Horton, Boston Bruins; 9. Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins; 10. Jonathan Toews.

Dishonorable mention: Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron both had to leave Game 5 early due to unspecified injuries ... The Bruins lost consecutive games for the first time since the opening round ... David Krejci was 2-for-13 in the faceoff circle ... Milan Lucic: not happy: