Stanley Cup Finals 2013: Who Will Be Under More Pressure In Games 3 and 4?

After breaking up one team’s impressive stretch of home dominance to hasten their Western Conference Finals victory, the Chicago Blackhawks must do the same to another adversary if they are to win the Stanley Cup.

The final is deadlocked at 1-1 going into Monday night’s Game 3, which the Boston Bruins will host on the heels of a potentially vital 2-1 overtime triumph in Saturday’s Game 2.

But will splitting the first two games on the road do the Bruins much good in the series if they merely split the next two at TD Garden?

Just the same, having let one game slip away at the United Center, is one road win out of two tries enough for the Blackhawks to compensate?

A credible case can be made on both sides as to which way the brunt of the pressure leans as the 2013 Stanley Cup Final switches sites. That shouldn't be any surprise considering the teams are tied in the way of wins and total goals (5-5) after a pair of overtime affairs.

Consider these capsules for each team and decide for yourself as to who needs the momentum more for when the series shuffles back to Chicago.

Why This is a Challenge for the Bruins

The regular-season champion Blackhawks have already split Games 3 and 4 on the road in two other series this spring. Granted, one of those was against a still-burgeoning Minnesota team, but the other was against the reigning champion Los Angeles Kings.

The Kings, who had a better chance to repeat their title than any other recent Cup winners because of the extended offseason, were 8-0 at the Staples Center going into Game 4 of the conference final.

That goose egg hatched at the hands of the Hawks when they seized a stranglehold on the series with a gutsy, come-from-behind 3-2 victory.

That was Chicago’s most recent road outing, which may be even more noteworthy than its sub-par 3-4 road record in this tournament.

The fact that the Blackhawks did that against a team as rigid and regimented as L.A. strongly suggests that they are more battle-tested than anyone else the Bruins have faced in the 2013 playoffs. Ditto Chicago’s comeback from a 3-1 series deficit to abolish an upset-minded Detroit Red Wings squad in the second round.

This is the second time the Bruins have usurped home-ice advantage from a team that finished atop its conference, having sculpted a 2-0 lead in their last series versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. But unlike the Blackhawks, the Penguins had not previously faced any teams permeated with a core group of one-time champions.

Rather, the Pens entered the Eastern Conference Final after dispatching the eighth-seeded Islanders and seventh-seeded Senators, never trailing either series over a span of 11 games.

Boston deserves credit for climbing into the collective heads of the celestial Penguins and staying in long enough to complete a stunning sweep. Still, doing the same against Chicago will be a taller order, especially if the Blackhawks can reclaim home-ice advantage with a single win at TD Garden.

True, in the short history of their relatively new arena, the Bruins have won all three of their home Cup final games in decisive fashion. But it is safe to assert that these Hawks have a much stronger psychological spine than the Vancouver Canucks of 2011 did and are therefore more inclined to step up and click when the situation nears dire status.

Why This is a Challenge for the Blackhawks

Boston is a not-quite-perfect 7-2 at home in the 2013 playoffs, but it started an active six-game home winning streak with a dramatic Game 7 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. That streak snowballed with three wins over the New York Rangers and two over the Penguins, including the series clinchers.

Chicago’s last road win was significant in that it hurriedly pushed its best-equipped opponent to date toward the precipice of elimination going back to the United Center for Game 5. But unlike the conference finals, the Blackhawks are going to need a sweep in Boston rather than a split if they want to put the Bruins in the same 3-1 hole as the Kings.

A split would still put the Hawks in a relatively favorable position, as it would whittle the Cup finals down to a best of three with two tiebreaker games at home. That could impact the momentum entering Game 5.

Look no further than the way the Blackhawks and Bruins started Game 2 on the heels of Chicago’s Game 1 thriller. Even with two full days off in between, the Blackhawks spotted themselves an early 1-0 upper hand Saturday night, and that narrow margin of output seemed anything but indicative of the contest’s early one-sidedness.

With that said, Boston bounced back to surmount that small deficit and the momentum in the game and the series.

In turn, imagine if the Bruins were to win Game 4, whether that draws a 2-2 knot or raises a 3-1 upper hand. Furthermore, consider the fact that they would subsequently be going back to Chicago, where they have proven they can cultivate a victory and, in the process, relearned that an overwhelming first period does not make a whole game.

In addition, Boston is returning home with more of its prime scoring suspects having already produced in this series than its Chicago counterparts. Patrice Bergeron, Nathan Horton, David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Tyler Seguin have combined for a 3-7-10 scoring log, whereas Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane, Brandon Saad, Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews are an aggregate 2-2-4.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics for this report were found via nhl.com