Zdeno Chara Bails Out Tuukka Rask During Intense Flurry From Pittsburgh Penguins (Video)

The Boston Bruins are off the the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in three years and most of the credit can be handed to netminder Tuukka Rask. All series long Rask was brilliant, posting a 0.44 goals against average and only allowing just two goals all series long to one of the hottest offenses in hockey this season.

But Rask’s most impressive moment in the series against the Penguins came in the final minute of Game 4 where he swatted away a fierce flurry of desperate offense and preserved the 1-0 win.

Here’s Doc Emrick with the amazing call of some amazing netminding:

Rask got bailed out big time by the 6-foot-9 Zdneo Chara who used every single inch of his body to block a shot by Evgeni Malkin which otherwise would have gone in. It was joked in the NBC Sports Network postgame show that had Zdeno been 6-foot-8 we would have been headed to overtime but instead the Bruins are now headed to the Stanley Cup.

But while Chara gets massive supporting credit for his blocked shot during the Penguins 6-on-5 attack in the final minute of the game, it’s absolutely astonishing that not a single shot got past Rask at the end of the game. A lesser netminder allows a puck past him during that barrage of shots but not Rask. Despite the fact the Penguins got all the right guys the puck at the end of the game, Rask swatted every shot away and that’s a sample of what he’s been doing since his series against the New York Rangers.

They weren’t the favorites even coming into this series let alone the postseason, but all it takes is elite play from your netminder to change your fortunes and that’s exactly what has happened to the Bruins thanks to Tuukka Rask.