– Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images
The Blues enter tonight winners of their last three straight and look to begin a four game road trip on a good note in Boston. The Bruins come into the matchup having lost two of their last three, and are looking to climb up the divisional standings in the Atlantic.
Patrice Bergeron got the Bruins on the board first. Brian Elliott left his crease to fetch the puck behind the net. Ian Cole received the puck from Elliott and spun to fire it out of the Blues’ zone. Instead, he passed it straight to Bergeron for an easy open-net goal.
Halfway through the second period, Torey Krug took a rink-wide pass towards the slot and beat Elliott with a wrist shot to give Boston a 2-0 lead.
The Blues did a good job of trying to battle back. St Louis almost doubled the shot attempts by Boston, leading 33-17 in that category.
With just over three minutes left in the game, Blues’ coach Ken Hitchcock pulled Elliott in favor of the extra attacker. St Louis started to apply pressure to Boston with the advantage. With 2:01 on the clock, Paul Stastny was whistled for a hooking minor, putting Boston on a power play and riding out the rest of the clock. The Bruins would take this game by a score of 2-0.
St Louis lost this game in the slot. That’s been the Blues’ bread and butter recently and Boston did a great job of not letting St Louis get comfortable in that zone.
Tuukka Rask was a wall tonight. Rask showed the Blues why he’s the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, stopping all 33 shots the Blues attempted.
Boston improves to 12-8-0 with the win tonight. The Blues drop to 12-5-1, and continue the road trip Thursday at Montreal. That game starts at 6:30 PM CST and can be seen on FS-MW or heard on KMOX 1120.
