Recap: Bruins stave off elimination with a 5-1 win in Game 6

The hockey season will continue for one more game! The Bruins forced a winner-take-all Game 7 at the Garden on Wednesday night with a 5-1 win over the Blues in Game 6.

Let’s get to it!

Note: We have our normal highlights below, but it’s so late that dafoomie already has his full highlights up, if you want to check those out.

After Ryan O’Reilly tossed the puck over the glass to give the Bruins a 5-on-3 power play, Brad Marchand cashed in with a laser of a one-timer. 1-0 Bruins

Tuukka Rask was huge in this game, but he got a little help from Charlie McAvoy here. Still 1-0 Bruins

The Bruins held onto a 1-0 lead into the third period, when Brandon Carlo went full “skipping rocks at the beach” with a bouncer that snuck through Jordan Binnington. 2-0 Bruins

Bruce Cassidy pushes the right buttons again, as his newest lineup move cashes in with a laser of a goal. 3-0 Bruins

Tuukka Rask was so good tonight that he even saved the goal he allowed! After review, replay determined that O’Reilly’s shot did, in fact, cross the line, and the Blues had life. 3-1 Bruins

With St. Louis looking to build off of its goal, Sean Kuraly said “nah, not tonight.” He bodied Sammy Blais and found Brad Marchand, who found David Pastrnak, who found the back of the net. Tic tac goal. 4-1 Bruins

Zdeno Chara FROM DOWNTOWN! Big Z ices it with a long-distance empty-netter. 5-1 Bruins

And that was it! Except for the Blues’ goonery, which never runs out of time.

Goodnight everybody! Bruins win, 5-1, and we’ll have a Game 7 on Wednesday night. EVERYONE REMAIN CALM.

Game notes

• Per Conor Ryan and some other beat reporters, Patrice Bergeron gave quite the pre-game speech. It worked, as the B’s came out pretty well in the first few minutes before St. Louis clawed back into it.
• Tuukka Rask was immense tonight. There was a stat shared by NBC Boston that said prior to O’Reilly’s goal, Rask had made 104 consecutive saves in elimination games. That is, uh...PRETTY GOOD.
• Before the game, much of the talk was about how the Bruins’ big names needed to step up. They did tonight. Brad Marchand got on the board early, David Krejci had his first 5v5 point of the series, David Pastrnak got a goal...can’t complain there. Ideally, the big names can keep it going into Wednesday.
• Speaking of Krejci, I thought this was far and away his best game of the series. Aside from the assist on the Karson Kuhlman goal, Krejci was noticeable in the defensive zone. I counted a handful of times where Krejci’s backcheck, positioning, or patience helped the Bruins exit the zone cleanly, which is key against the Blues’ aggressive forecheck.
• It’s easy to mock Jordan Binnington for the Carlo goal, but I can’t really blame him for it. That was basically a knucklepuck through traffic, bouncing wildly all over the ice. I’m glad it went in, of course, but it’s a stretch to call that a soft one.
• Per Chris, Zdeno Chara skated more than 22 minutes tonight. I think he’s adjusting well to his jaw injury. Among forwards, it was two fourth-liners who led the way. Joakim Nordstrom led all forwards with 18:31, while Sean Kuraly came in second at 17:01. GRINDERS.
• Kuraly deserves a lot of credit for his game tonight. He was all over the place, whether it was making great plays on the PK or taking the body on the forecheck. More than once, his efforts (along with those of Noel Acciari and Nordstrom) led to great cycling shifts in the St. Louis zone, the kind of “heavy shifts” that go a long way toward winning games.
• There was a ton of flopping on both sides tonight. Torey Krug took a dive after an icing, Oskar Sundqvist dove at the defensive blueline...anything to gain an advantage, right?
• Not to beat a dead horse, but it was funny to see Brad Marchand’s tripping penalty on Alex Pietrangelo get called after Tyler Bozak’s similar play went uncalled. Marchand’s was absolutely a penalty. They got it right tonight; they got it wrong Thursday.
• The Blues continue to do an excellent job of making themselves unlikable. With the game well out of reach, Sammy Blais went stick-swinging on Connor Clifton, chopping him in the ankle. Seconds later, Bortuzzo bunched Acciari in the head. Ho hum, more shennanigans from the Blues.
• The Bruins deserve credit for their improved 5v5 play tonight (especially in the neutral zone), but we should acknowledge the puck luck too. Sometimes the bounces don’t go your way. Tonight, they went the Bruins’ way. Carlo’s goal. McAvoy’s baseball swing. The puck hitting the official prior to Carlo’s goal. Bounces, sure. But the Bruins deserve credit for cashing in.
• I felt bad for David Backes prior to the game, even though I knew that playing Kuhlman was the right move. Backes has been in the league for so long that you have to think it’s extremely hard for him to sit and watch these games. Still, Kuhlman added an element of controlled chaos to the second line, and it’s probably not a coincidence that the trio had its best showing of the series. Kuhlman is fast, willing to get in the corners, and willing to shoot, as we saw on his goal.
• He didn’t end up all over the scoresheet, but Jake DeBrusk was excellent tonight. He had a sequence in the second (I think) where he blocked a shot on the PK, then got back in the play and blocked another shot with his stick. He’s been quiet this series, but this was a good “intangibles” game for the kid.