CHICAGO – Tuukka Rask was called for a delay of game penalty as he played the puck outside of trapezoid, Jonathan Toews scored a power play goal and Rask was once again called for a penalty — this time slashing.

All of this came within the final eight seconds of the first period.

Holding a 2-0 lead in what was one of the best periods the Bruins have played on their five-game road trip, the Blackhawks seemed to turn the tides in their favor with Toews’ goal, something that has happened to the Bruins way too much during their disastrous road trip.

But instead, the Bruins used Chicago’s goal as motivation of their own and followed up Toews’ tally with four straight second period goals en route to a 6-2 victory, snapping their six-game losing streak.

“Well that was the important part, I thought mentally we had to be strong and we had to stick with our game plan and not get rattled here,” head coach Claude Julien said following his team’s win.

“We could have easily, with the situation we’ve been in, got flustered and stressed and this could have gone the other way. But our guys did a great job staying with it, going back and executing what we wanted our team to execute from the start.”

It’s very unusual to see a goalie get a penalty in a game, let alone two. For Rask, he felt that it was the post he slashed, not Kris Versteeg

“No, I didn’t think so, I don’t know, I haven’t seen the reply yet. I’m sure it’s pretty obvious that I tried to slash the post, I mean that’s what I thought I did,” said Rask.

“Stay out of the crease” Rask added with a smile.

The delay of game call is something Rask knows is all on him, a mental lapse if you will.

“Well that’s the worst penalty – I thought originally that it was right on the line but I guess that it was on the wrong side of it which is fine, but I was waiting, waiting and waiting, but I couldn’t wait any more and I had to play it,” said Rask, who made 26 saves in the win. “So it’s just a bad penalty to take and then you get scored on with 1.4 seconds left. It’s frustrating and I showed it”

Throughout the road trip, one bad, untimely goal has led to the unraveling of the Bruins. But on Sunday, Rask and company decided that enough was enough and their most recent trend would not continue.

The second period has not been very kind to the Bruins this season. With that very much in their minds, they couldn’t have asked for a better middle period as they managed to put the game away, something they have struggled with of late.

“I think we stayed positive. 2-1 on the road in Chicago, I think we were pretty happy with that and happy with our game and we didn’t want to kind of let them beat us and just wanted to work, then we got a big kill in the second and then kind of just went from there, kept our game up,” said Dougie Hamilton, who scored his 10th of the season on Sunday afternoon. “So it was nice to have that 60-minute effort that we keep talking about not having.”

Goals by Milan Lucic, Gregory Campbell, Hamilton and Reilly Smith were all the Bruins needed in the second to put the game out of reach and end the trip on a positive note.

The standings and stats may not show it, but inside the Bruins’ locker room they feel that they’re a good hockey team and that they can compete with any team thrown their way.

“I think it’s one of those things where you got to create your own confidence and believing in yourself. You know it’s not always easy, it’s challenging, it’s a long season, but we just got to stay with it and keep pushing. Eventually everything will go back to the way it should be,” captain Zdeno Chara said. “I thought for a lot of guys tonight, it was a great example that we couldn’t really get anything going, the whole road trip was frustrating, a little disappointing, but today was a great example that we play the same way against other teams on this road trip but today we see a much better result.”