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Turtle Wax Weekend Recap: ‘Hawks, Bruins punch tickets to Cup finals

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The Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins made history over the weekend.

By winning the Western and Eastern Conference finals, the ‘Hawks and Bruins set up a Stanley Cup finals featuring two of the league’s most storied franchises.

This matchup is the first Original Six battle since the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers met in the 1979 Stanley Cup finals.

So storied, yes.

But familiar? Nope.

These two have never faced each other for Lord Stanley’s Mug before.

The Bruins got there in the most improbable of fashions -- sweeping the East’s No. 1 seed, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in four straight games. The Bruins did it on the strength of outstanding goaltending from Tuukka Rask, who only allowed two goals over the course of the series, and some timely scoring.

In Game 4, that timely scoring came from defenseman Adam McQuaid, who made just his second goal of this postseason one of the biggest of his career. His tally stood as the winning marker as Boston defeated Pittsburgh 1-0, putting the Bruins in their second Stanley Cup finals in the last three years.

Out West, the Blackhawks advanced to their second Cup finals appearance in four years as they dispatched of the defending champion Los Angeles Kings.

Chicago got a classic clutch performance from forward Patrick Kane, who scored a hat-trick in the 4-3 victory, scoring a beauty game-winner in double-overtime.

That set the stage for what should be a tremendous 2013 Stanley Cup finals -- one that gets underway on Wednesday, June 12 on NBC.,