It doesn’t appear the Boston Bruins’ Game 2 loss set them back too much.
The Bruins took a 2-1 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday thanks to a 7-2 dumptrucking of the St. Louis Blues in Game 3 at Enterprise Center.
Boston scored three goals in the first period and never looked back. Patrice Bergeron, Charlie Coyle, Sean Kuraly, David Pastrnak, Torey Krug, Noel Acciari (empty-netter) and Marcus Johansson had the goals for Boston, while Ivan Barbashev and Colton Parayko potted the Blues’ tallies.
Tuukka Rask made 27 saves for the Bruins, while Jordan Binnington turned away 14 shots for St. Louis before getting pulled. His replacement, Jake Allen, made three stops.
Here’s how it all went down:
DELUGE
The Bruins poured goals on the Blues in the first period, scoring three times in the opening 20 minutes.
After a borderline woeful couple of games for the Bruins’ top line, they were the ones that got on the board first in Game 3.
With David Perron in the penalty box for interference, Bergeron won a draw and got the puck out to Krug. The defenseman skated with possession for a moment before throwing a shot on net. Bergeron had gone to the slot after winning the face-off, and he managed to redirect Krug’s shot past Binnington at 10:47.
With just a few minutes left in the frame, Boston’s third line, which has been tremendous all series, got on the board.
Coyle was engaged in a puck battle at the end boards of the Bruins’ defensive zone, and ultimately got possession. Coyle skated hard whilst under heavy pressure before getting a pass off to Danton Heinen, who carried the puck through the neutral zone. After gaining the offensive blue line, Heinen dropped off a pass to a trailing Johansson, and Johansson quickly threaded the puck over to Coyle. The center carried for a split second, then fired a shot that beat Binnington at 17:40.
Just before the horn sounded to end the period, Kuraly extended the lead.
Joakim Nordstrom did a great job to win a battle with Joel Edmundson, eventually tipping the puck to Kuraly. After skating to the top of the circle, Kuraly wristed a missile past Binnington with 10 seconds left in the frame.
EVEN MORE
The Bruins’ scoring prowess wasn’t confined to just the first period. Though they conceded one goal in the middle frame, they scored a pair themselves.
Less than a minute into the stanza, Pastrnak got on the board. With Perron serving a delay of game penalty called late in the first, Krug at the point received a pass from Bergeron. Krug zipped the puck to the top of the crease, where Pastrnak was waiting for it essentially unmarked. The winger made a nice move to get to his backhand before roofing the puck just 41 seconds into the period to make it 4-0.
Just beyond the midway point, Alex Steen got a loose puck at the edge of the circle and sent it behind the net to Zach Sanford. After holding possession for a moment, Sanford slipped a pass to the doorstep, where Barbashev one-timed St. Louis’ first goal past Rask at 11:05.
The life quickly was sucked back out of the Blues just over a minute later.
With Parayko in the box for high-sticking, Krug got the puck at the point and sent a pass to Brad Marchand. The winger skated toward the middle of the zone before backhanding a pass right back to Krug, who then skated to the top of the circle and uncorked a rocket that Binnington got a piece of, but not enough to keep it from going in at 12:12 to put Boston up 5-1.
The Krug goal resulted in Binnington getting pulled.
B’S CLOSE IT OUT
The Blues scored a goal relatively early in the third period, but they never put together a true comeback attempt.
With Zdeno Chara in the box for roughing, the Blues buried their second tally of the game. Parayko slapped a hard shot from the point, and after sailing most of the way to the net, the puck struck Brandon Carlo and deflected past Rask at 5:24, cutting Boston’s lead to 5-2.
The Blues emptied their net with under six minutes to play, and with 1:48 left in the game, Acciari scored an empty netter.
Right after Acciari’s goal, the Blues sent the Bruins back on the power play, and Johansson cashed in.
UP NEXT
The two teams will meet again Monday in St. Louis for Game 4. Puck drop from Enterprise Center is set for 8 p.m. ET.
