Stanley Cup Finals Game 3: Boston 7 – St. Louis 2
With the series tied at 1, it shifts to St. Louis for Games 3 and 4 and the Bruins needed to have a better game than they did in Game 2. As the game got going, the crowd was very loud and the building was rocking, but as we know throughout the playoffs, the Bruins have been playing pretty good on the road and not letting the crowd take them out of the game. However, at the start of the game, the Blues would be strong. They got a power play opportunity after Jake DeBrusk took a tripping penalty. Luckily, the Bruins were able to make the kill and the game changed. Just over halfway through the period, the Bruins would go on the power play for the first time in this one and needed it to be better than almost all the power plays in the last game. Patrice Bergeron would get the Bruins on the board with his 100th career playoff point, as he tipped in a shot by Torey Krug, and start to wake up his line mates.
After the goal, the Bruins clearly took momentum as the first line put in a great shift and the rest of the team was following suit. As time wound down in the period and the Johansson, Coyle, Heinen line was on the ice, Charlie Coyle was a beast clearing the puck from the defensive zone Heinen carried the puck into the zone, dropped it for Johansson who would find Coyle waiting at the right circle. He would fire a wrister past Jordan Binnington to make it 2-0.
Before the period would end, the Bruins would get another goal on the board after Joakim Nordstrom took the puck as he entered the offensive zone and boxed out the Blues defender as Sean Kuraly picked up the puck and snuck a wrist shot past Binnington once again for the third goal for the B’s.
The St. Louis Blues would challenge the call on the ice for offside, but it was ruled an onside play and the Blues would be charged with a minor penalty. The power play for the Bruins would carry over into the second period and it would not slow down. Right away in the power play the Bruins would take control and it would lead to David Pastrnak scoring on the backhand to make it a 4-0 game.
The second period would continue on with the Bruins maintaining control and not letting up. The Blues however would start to inch their way back into the game after the Blues scored halfway through, to get within three. The Bruins wouldn’t waste much time as they would go on their third power play of the night. Torey Krug would answer the Blues goal with one of his own as he fired in a shot from the top of the right circle.
With the score now 5-1 Bruins, the Blues would pull Binnington and replace him with Jake Allen hoping to light a fire in the team. Through the rest of the period, the Blues wouldn’t get anything past Tuukka who was on his game yet again. Moving on to the third period, the Bruins really just needed to buckle down on defense and not allow good scoring opportunities for the Blues, as well as not giving in on offense and continuing the push. At the start of the period it was evenly matched with both teams getting chances, and lots of physical play. About five minutes into the third, Zdeno Chara would take a roughing penalty and the Blues would go on the power play. Immediately off the faceoff the Blues would score to make it 5-2.
As the third period was wrapping up, the Blues would empty the net for the man advantage and in their possession, Charlie McAvoy blocked a shot with the inside of his knee and was in a lot of pain back at the bench, we have to hope that he’ll be okay for Game 4. After the shot block, Noel Acciari would score in the empty net to essentially end the game. There was still a few minutes left to play but the Blues would keep Allen in the net, and Marcus Johansson would score on the power play to make it a 7-2 final score.
It was a great bounce back win for the Bruins on the road as they take a 2-1 series lead and if they can win Game 4, they would return to Boston for Game 5 and a chance to close the series but, let’s not got ahead of ourselves. In the game tonight, Torey Krug had a goal and 3 assists, becoming the first Bruin in franchise history to record a 4 point game. He has been outstanding in the playoffs in his career, he has 44 points in 58 games. Hopefully that continues in Game 4 on Monday night at 8pm.
Videos courtesy of NHL.com