Recap: Bruins power their way past St. Louis to win Game 3, 7-2

As is usually the case, you may not see the embedded highlights if you’re on mobile. If you see nothing, click on the link toward the end of each description to view the clip directly.

Patrice Bergeron, on the lukewarm seat for a quiet Games 1 and 2, gets the Bruins on the board in the first, tipping home a beautiful Torey Krug pass to make it 1-0 Bruins.

Brayden Schenn sells out to try to bury David Pastrnak and, uh...it doesn’t go well for him. WHOOPS!

That whole “secondary scoring” thing pays off again, as Charlie Coyle finishes a great total-line effort to make it 2-0 Bruins.

The fourth line wins some hustle battles and Jordan Binnington gives up a softie, making it 3-0 Bruins in the last seconds of the first.

The Blues would challenge this goal for being offside, but it was upheld after review due to the fact that Joel Edmundson carried the puck back into his own zone.

The Blues would lose their timeout and get a minor penalty...

...which the Bruins would turn into a four-goal lead when David Pastrnak just toasted Jordan Binnington on the power play. 4-0 Bruins.

The Blues get one back, as a great shift from their fourth line ends with a goal by Ivan Barbashev. 4-1 Bruins.

Back on the PP, a Torey Krug shot gets deflected past Binnington, ending his night. Jake Allen would come on in relief, and the Bruins went up 5-1.

Hey look, the Blues bumped Tuukka Rask again! This interaction with David Perron would ratchet up the intensity level in this one.

The B’s began a parade to the penalty box in the third, and Colton Parayko would cash in (with a little luck). 5-2 Bruins.

The Blues pulled the goalie with about 5 minutes left and applied decent pressure, but it wasn’t enough. Noel Acciari added another (and drew a penalty in the process) to make it 6-2 Bruins.

One reason for concern, that you’ll see at the start of the clip: Charlie McAvoy blocked a shot with the inside of his knee. He hobbled to the bench, where he remained hunched over until the ENG; after that, he headed down the tunnel.

On that power play, the B’s would add insult to injury with this Marcus Johansson PPG to make it 7-2 Bruins. Torey Krug made history on this play, as his assist made him the first Bruin to ever record 4 points in a Cup Final game.

And that was that! The B’s took back home ice advantage with a 7-2 win in Game 3.

Game notes

• The Bruins won comfortably, but you could argue that this game was ultimately decided in the first 10 minutes. The Blues came out flying: Sammy Blais laid out David Backes with a borderline hit, then Jake DeBrusk took a penalty just a minute into the game. The B’s would make the kill, settle down, and turn the tables on St. Louis until David Perron took a dumb interference penalty at 10:26 of the first. The B’s would score on the PP, and they were off to the races.
• Speaking of Perron, he turned into 2019’s Alex Burrows tonight. Dumb penalties, running the goalie, generally being annoying...it sure didn’t hurt the Bruins though.
• Speaking of 2011, during that run, the Bruins’ power play nearly sunk them; tonight, their power play won the game. The B’s went 4-for-4 with the man advantage, scoring 4 goals on 4 shots. NOT BAD.
• Another good sign for tonight: Patrice Bergeron got on the board, as did David Pastrnak. Brad Marchand wasn’t super dangerous, but was far more effective than he was in Games 1 and 2. As many predicted, the first line trio was simply too good to be bad for that long.
• I can’t speak for the entire game, as I wasn’t watching him closely the entire time, but John Moore was excellent on a late PK. The game wasn’t quite out of reach, and Moore made 2 or 3 great clears due to his positioning and skating. Good stuff.
• Tuukka Rask finished the night with 27 saves, and it’s hard to fault him on either goal: both bounced off his own players.
• The narrative going into Game 2 was that Jordan Binnington was a bounce-back guy; going into Game 3, however, Binnington is faced not with a simple loss but with a true shellacking, something he hasn’t really run into yet this postseason. HMMMMM...
• While Oskar Sundqvist got suspended for his hit, I thought the Blais hit on David Backes was more predatory. Sundqvist, you can argue, was trying to make a hockey play and had to make a split-second decision. Blais seemed to hunt Backes, and finished high on purpose.
• There were over 1,000 comments on the Public Skate tonight. You people are the best!

Back at it on Monday!