In an electric atmosphere in St. Louis, Missouri at the Enterprise Center the home fans were treated to their first Stanley Cup Finals game in the city in 49 years on Saturday night. The visiting Boston Bruins though took the crowd out of the game just over 20 minutes into the contest, taking a 4-0 lead and never looking back en route to a 7-2 win over the Blues in game three of the Stanley Cup Finals. Boston leads the best of seven series 2-1.
The Blues got an early powerplay just 1:02 in to rev up an already revved up crowd. St. Louis couldn’t convert however. Boston broke the scoreless tie at 10:47 on the powerplay. Patrice Bergeron deflected a point shot by Torey Krug in the slot to make it 1-0. For Bergeron, it was his 100th career playoff point making him only the sixth Bruins player in history to achieve that. Charlie Coyle doubled the lead at 17:40. Coyle won a puck battle on the end boards in his own zone and started up ice. He passed over to Danton Heinen who then shoveled it back to Marcus Johansson, who then found Coyle in the faceoff dots to the left of Blues goalie Jordan Binnington. Coyle found the back of the net with a wrist shot, his eighth of the playoffs. Sean Kuraly scored another one with just under eight seconds left in the period. Kuraly picked up a loose puck just outside the right faceoff dots, and fired a quick shot that went through the legs of St. Louis defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and also through the legs of Binnington. The Bruins scored on three of the last four shots they had in the period.
David Pastrnak made it 4-0 with another powerplay goal just 40 seconds into the second period. Krug took a wrist shot that Pastrnak stopped with his stick, and then went forehand to backhand stickside on Binnington into the top right corner of the net. Ivan Barbashev finally got the Blues on the board at 11:05 to give the crowd something to celebrate, taking a feed from behind the net by Zach Sanford and cashing in from the slot. It was a short lived celebration because just 1:07 later though on the powerplay Krug would end Binningtons night and extend back to a four goal lead. Krug stepped into a shot from the right faceoff dots to the left of the Blues netminder that deflected off a defender and into the net.
St. Louis would once again make it a three goal game in the third period. Colton Parayko converted on the powerplay at 5:24. After a Blues faceoff win, Parayko would crank a slapshot from the point that careened off a Bruins defender and eluded Rask. St. Louis though never really threatened a comeback on this night. Noel Acciari would add an empty net goal at 18:12, and then Johannson finished off a perfect 4-4 night on the powerplay when he one timed a Krug pass just 23 seconds later to finish off the scoring.
Boston has five players with multiple point nights. Krug had a goal and three assists. Bergeron had a goal and two assists. Coyle and Johansson each had a goal and an assist, while Joakim Nordstrom added two assists. Rask made 27 saves in the win. Binnington made 14 saves on 19 shots before he was pulled. This was the first time the goalie has been pulled in 52 career starts. Jake Allen stopped three of four shots in relief. St. Louis went 1-5 on the powerplay.
The Bruins improved to 7-2 on the road in the playoffs this season, including five wins in a row where they have outscored their opponents 20-4. A key game four will faceoff on Monday night from St. Louis at 8 p.m.
