Recap: Bruins dealt 4-2 loss to Blues

The Boston Bruins dropped their second-straight game as they couldn’t put forth a full 60-minute effort and fell 4-2 to the St. Louis Blues tonight at the TD Garden.

The B’s led after the first period, as Patrice Bergeron netted a quick equalizer 15 seconds after David Perron opened the scoring in the first 30 seconds of the game.

Marc McLaughlin had the Bruins up, 2-1, after 20 minutes and that offensive carried over into the first half of the second period.

With lengthy o-zone possessions, the Bruins had better puck movement and limited the Blues to only two shots on goal during almost 13 minutes of the frame.

But the Bruins began to play undisciplined and took a couple bad penalties. It didn’t help either that the power play lacked execution and couldn’t set up enough viable chances.

The Blues struck on their fourth power play to tie the game as Torey Krug caught Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron up high and weaved his way through their PK coverage.

While the Bruins controlled the first half of the game, after Krug’s goal, the Blues took over and the B’s fell flat.

Turnovers hurt the B’s and led to the Blues’ third goal, which created a 3-on-1 rush for Vladimir Tarasenko’s go-ahead tally. Defensive mistakes became more apparent with poor slot coverage and allowing St. Louis’ forwards to be unmanned.

It also didn’t help that Brandon Carlo exited the game during the first period because he didn’t feel right and logged only 4:48 minutes of ice time.

The Bruins tried to generate offensive pressure in the opening minutes of the third period, but they ultimately couldn’t sustain it. They lost puck battles as the Blues’ defense was stronger than the effort the B’s put forth.

Tarasenko capped off the night with another goal which allowed the Blues to hand the Bruins a 4-2 loss.

So although they started off strong, all the turnovers, odd-man rushes, net-front breakdowns, undisciplined hockey and the loss of Carlo, added up and played a factor in the loss.

With the defeat, the B’s have yet to secure a playoff berth.

The Bruins return to action on Thursday April 14 when they host the Ottawa Senators at 7 pm.

Here are the highlights:

First period:

The Blues opened the scoring 34 seconds into the first period.

On a 2-on-1 against Mike Reilly after the B’s failed to keep the play alive at the offensive blue line, Reilly tried to intercept the pass Ryan O’Reilly was going to feed to Perron, but couldn’t. O’Reilly hit Perron with a pass where in the slot, he shifted to his backhand and put one top-shelf over Jeremy Swayman’s blocker. 1-0 Blues.

The Bruins answered right back with a quick goal at 49 seconds into the first period.

After wrapping around the net, Marchand found Bergeron in the high slot for a one-timer through traffic that traveled past Ville Husso’s blocker. 1-1 game.

The Bruins took the lead at 16:59 of the first period.

Erik Haula set a backhanded pass to McLaughlin in the high slot where he let a quick shot find its way through Husso’s five-hole. 2-1 Bruins.

Second period:

The Blues tied the game at 15:10 of the second period.

Brayden Schenn sent a pass to Krug who beat both Marchand and Bergeron to get into the high slot and put a wrister over Swayman’s blocker shoulder. 2-2 game.

The Blues took the lead at 18:12 of the second period.

Off a through-the-legs feed from Robert Thomas, Tarasenko fired a blast from the slot over Swayman’s blocker. 3-2 Blues.

Third period:

The Blues cushioned their lead at 9:27 of the third period.

On a 3-on-1 against Reilly, Tarasenko received a pass back from Pavel Buchnevich for a one-timer past Swayman’s glove for his second goal of the night. Final score: 4-2 Blues.