For the first time in 49 years the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues squared off in a Stanley Cup Finals game Monday night. St. Louis is making their first appearance in the Finals since a 1970 loss to Boston, while the Bruins are seeking their second title in eight years. In game one at TD Garden, the Bruins rallied from an early 2-0 second period deficit getting a game winning third period goal from Sean Kuraly in a 4-2 win.
The visitors from St. Louis struck first with the only goal in the opening period. Brayden Shenn scored his third playoff goal at 7:23. Shenn won a puck battle along the right wing boards and fired a shot in on Boston goalie Tuuka Rask. The shot handcuffed Rask and kicked right back to Shenn in the slot, who fired a slapper into the net to make it 1-0. Both teams had eight shots on net in the opening 20, and the Bruins had a great chance to tie it putting two shots off the post behind Blues goalie Jordan Binnington.
Alot of action in the early stages of the second period. St. Louis extended their lead to a pair just 1:00 minute into the middle stanza. After a David Pastrnak turnover behind his own net, Vladimir Tarasenko one timed a Shenn pass from behind the net in the slot in front of Rask to make it 2-0. Boston responded to cut it to one again just 1:16 later when Sean Kuraly skated into the faceoff dots to the left of Binnington, and centered one to Connor Clifton at the right side of the net who just got a piece of the puck with the end of his stick beating the out of position goaltender. After going 0 for their first 3 in powerplay chances, Boston evened the score with their fourth man advantage. Patrice Bergeron nearly got the equalizer when he had a rebound in front of Binnington, but couldn’t push it in. About 15 seconds later Charlie McAvoy ripped a wrister from the high slot that was partially deflected by Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and into the net. The unassisted goal at 12:41 was his second of the playoffs. The teams would end up tied 2-2 at the end of the period, but the hosts dominated outshooting the Blues 18-3.
Boston took their first lead of the night at 5:21 of the third. Clifton intercepted a Blues clearing pass at center ice that led to a scramble in front of the St. Louis net. Noel Acciari sent a pass from the right of Binnington to Kuraly who was parked to the left. The pass was at the feet of Kuraly, who collected it and buried the shot in close on the goalie that turned out to be the game winner before Binnington could recover from right to left. Just 1:34 later though St. Louis went to work on their second powerplay, but never had any high quality chances on Rask. Boston also had a powerplay chance with 6:32 left in a pretty evenly played third period, but couldn’t extend the lead. The Blues pulled Binnington with 2:13 to go with a faceoff in the Bruins zone. Brad Marchand nearly ended it with a shot from his own blue line that missed the net on the other end. Marchand redeemed himself though when he got a loose puck and put one in the empty cage from the Blues blue line with 1:49 left to end it.
Rask got the win making 16 saves on just 18 Blues shots. Kuraly had a goal and an assist to lead the Bruins. Shenn had a goal and an assist in the loss for St. Louis, while Binnington made 34 saves. Boston was 1-5 on the powerplay, while St. Louis went 0-2. The Bruins outshot the Blues 37-18.
St. Louis is now 0-13 all-time in Stanley Cup Finals games. Boston has now won eight straight playoff games, and will try to go up 2-0 in the series when the teams faceoff in game two on Wednesday night in Boston at 8 p.m.
