The unit that won Game 2 for the Bruins will be back for Game 3.
Tyler Seguin, Chris Kelly and Daniel Paille are going to be on a line again as Boston looks to take a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Final tonight at TD Garden, according to head coach Claude Julien (as per CSNNE’s Joe Haggerty).
The trio, thrown together in the midst of Saturday’s game, combined for four points and both goals in a 2-1 overtime win.
Paille set up Kelly for the equalizer midway through the second period, and Seguin fired a beautiful cross-ice pass to Paille for the game-winner.
“I put those three guys together, and they answered,” Julien said following the game. “That line came up huge for us tonight.”
If the unit can continue to produce, it could create a major shift in the series.
Kelly came into Game 2 without a single point this postseason -- scoreless in 17 games, with a minus-9 rating -- and Seguin, Boston’s leading scorer from a year ago, had just one goal and five points.
Getting production from both was a huge boost to the Bruins, who relied exclusively on the Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton line for offense in Game 1.
What’s more, the new-look line has given Kelly and Seguin a place to play.
Kelly was shifted to center the “Merlot Line” after Gregory Campbell was lost for the playoffs with a broken leg, but it wasn’t working out.
Seguin was moving all over the place -- he temporarily replaced Horton on the “HuLK” line in Game 1, then skated with Rich Peverley and Kaspars Daugavins to begin Game 2.
Here are Boston’s expected lines for tonight, as per Haggerty:
Lucic-Krejci-Horton
Marchand-Bergeron-Jagr
Paille-Kelly-Seguin
Daugavins-Peverley-Thornton