Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron played only 49 seconds in the second period of Game 5 against the Chicago Blackhawks before leaving and was taken to a Chicago area hospital.
Patrice Bergeron has been taken to a local hospital in Chicago for observation the Bruins said in a tweet sent during the third period.
Burnside Series Taking Its TollInjuries to Patrice Bergeron and Jonathan Toews bring into sharper focus just what is being laid on the line Scott Burnside writes. Blog
No update and I think there's no concern until you get an update Bruins coach Claude Julien said after the game. As far as we're concerned he's just getting evaluated right now. Not much I can say on his situation.
Bergeron who has nine goals and six assists this postseason appeared to be skating gingerly during a brief final shift before returning to the Bruins' bench.
He was on the ice for 6 minutes 6 seconds in total including nine shifts in the first period and just two in the second.
It's just an injury that wasn't able to let him finish the game Julien said. He may be in next game. I'm not going there.
With the absence of Bergeron Julien leaned heavily on the team's top line of Milan Lucic David Krejci and Nathan Horton in the third period. That trio created chances and it led to the team's only goal in the third period on Zdeno Chara's slap shot that beat Chicago goalie Corey Crawford to the high glove side. But without Bergeron the Bruins were lost.
Obviously it's tough Krejci said. You don't want to see one of your best players go down especially this time of the year. We definitely missed him especially at the end of the game when we needed to score a goal.
More On The BruinsLooking for more from the ice Joe McDonald James Murphy and ESPNBoston.com have you covered. Blog
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It is what it is. I don't know how he feels right now or if he'll play or not but we really need him. If not we're going to try to do everything we can to get a win and force Game 7.
Since the Blackhawks now have a 3 2 series advantage with Game 6 Monday in Boston the Bruins can't focus on whether or not Bergeron will be out of the lineup.
There's nothing we can do about it we have to move on goaltender Tuukka Rask said. We have to trust the guys who will step in.
During his absence in Game 5 Julien inserted Carl Soderberg onto the team's second line as the center between Brad Marchand and Jaromir Jagr. It was Soderberg's NHL playoff debut. He hadn't played since April 28 and he was in the lineup Saturday in place of Kaspars Daugavins who had been skating on the fourth line.
I thought we could use him and although he had very limited experience in this league he's still a pretty skilled player and had a good year Julien said. I thought if we were going to give him a shot tonight was probably a good time for it.
He showed me enough to be able to move into Bergy's spot. I thought he played well and although there wasn't maybe the chemistry that you see with that line usually because it's his first time. I'm certainly not disappointed in the way he played tonight.
ESPNBoston.com's Joe McDonald contributed to this report.
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