BOSTON – The Bruins wasted no time starting their next point streak with a quality win against a pretty good St. Louis Blues hockey club.
The Bruins scored early and then finished up strong with a pair of goals in the third period to make up a 3-1 win for the Black and Gold over St. Louis at TD Garden.
The Bruins finally got on top to start a hockey game by notching the game’s first goal for the first time in nine tries, and it made all the difference in the world. It was a bit of a controversial play as a Jake DeBrusk shot bounced high up in the air, and eventually both Ryan Spooner and DeBrusk inadvertently pushed St. Louis goalie Jake Allen out of the crease as they were attacking the net.
David Krejci swooped in to score with the loose puck, and the Blues challenged that the play was goaltender interference. The NHL Situation Room ruled that it was, in fact, a good goal. The Bruins had a game’s first goal for the first time in a while.
That’s the way it stayed for most of the game despite a 22-shot barrage from the Black and Gold in the second period. Jake Allen and Tuukka Rask were both outstanding in turning away chances at both ends, and the score remained a one-goal game until midway through the third.
Vladimir Tarasenko hooked Torey Krug on a backdoor play, and Patrice Bergeron scored his 21st of the season on the ensuing power play on a scorched one-timer from the right face-off circle. It was an unstoppable shot from No. 37 and pretty much the only way the B’s were going to get a puck past Allen (43 saves) operating at the highest levels of his game.
The Blues made it close with Jaden Schwartz breaking the shutout with less than two minutes to go in the game on a wide open backdoor tap-in, but a David Backes empty net score with 0.4 seconds remaining iced it for the Black and Gold.
