Home certainly sweet for Boston
The Bruins may not have been able to produce a whole lot of entertaining hockey against the St. Louis Blues on a Monday night snoozer at the Garden.
They did, however, grab the two points they’ve become to accustomed to securing on Causeway Street this season, taking a 3-1 decision from the struggling Blues, now losers of their last seven games.
The B’s improved their home record to 7-0 by scoring two third-period goals and then grinding out a lengthy 6-on-5 situation for the victory. They’ve scored first in six of the seven home games.
“I think good teams do that,” said Trent Frederic of establishing home dominance. “It’s fun playing at TD. I feel like we always have a packed crowd and it seems like a Saturday every night.”
After failing to capitalize on two third-period power plays in their 2-1 loss in Toronto on Saturday, the B’s cashed in on both their power plays and also killed off their own three penalties, all of which came in the first 10:49 of the game.
“We have a lot of confidence in our penalty kill. I think our special teams won the game,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “Great work by both coaches (Joe) Sacco and (John) Gruden.”
Patrice Bergeron snapped a 1-1 tie with a power-play goal with 7:15 left in regulation. Brad Marchand caught a deflected pass on the right wing and fed the wide open Bergeron in his familiar bumper spot. The captain then snapped it over goalie Jordan Binnington’s blocker shoulder for the one-goal lead.
It was Bergeron’s fifth of the season and that held up as the game-winner, which seemed fitting after the captain was front and center during the turmoil surrounding the Mitchell
Miller signing.
“It’s always fitting when Bergeron comes through,” said Montgomery. “There’s not enough words that I can say about how much he means to the team culture and to the team productivity. He’s a player that gets the job done, night in, night out.”
Then with 3:32 left, Frederic sneaked a hard wrister through Binnington’s wickets for the insurance goal to seal it. It was a nice redemption after the St. Louis-raised Frederic took a key penalty the last time the Blues were in here last season in a Bruin loss.
“It felt good to be on the other side of it,” said Frederic, who now has three goals on the season.
Meanwhile, Linus Ullmark continued his excellence in net. After taking his first loss of the season in Toronto, Ullmark stopped 25 of 26 shots for the victory.
It was a rather sleepy start for the B’s, mostly because the early penalties. But they allowed the Blues next to nothing on the three advantages and, when they got their first man advantage, the B’s quickly made them pay.
After Niko Mikkola took down David Krejci in front of the Blues net at 13:17, the B’s scored 17 seconds later. Marchand dug out a puck along the right boards and fed David Pastrnak at the left circle. Pastrnak in turn spotted Jake DeBrusk slicing through the slot.
After initially fumbling the puck, Pastrnak made a slick backhand feed to DeBrusk, who was able beat Binnington on a low shot across his body for the 1-0 lead. It was DeBrusk’s fifth goal of the season.
Despite the fact that the Blues had three power plays, the B’s held a 12-6 shot edge in the first.
But the Blues looked like a different team in the second period, holding a sizable territorial advantage until they finally caught the B’s deep in the St. Louis end and scored on a pretty play off the rush. With some wide open ice in the Boston zone, old friend Torey Krug dished it to Brayden Schenn, who then played catch with Jordan Kyrou. Schenn took the return pass and buried it past a hungout-to-dry Ullmark for the equalizer at 11:37.
That seemed to wake the B’s from their stupor, as they turned up the pressure again but the Blues were defending the middle of the ice well. And the Blue started to counter-attack.
Kyrou was sprung for two breakaways on the same shift. On the first chance he lost the puck at the last instant and, on the second opportunity, Ullmark was forced to make a solid save.
The B’s did have one sparkling chance to break the deadlock before the period was out when Krejci had a clean shot from the right wing but he blasted it off the far post.
But the B’s did what they had to do in the third period to secure the victory.
“I don’t think it was their best or our best,” said DeBrusk. “It was kind of a grind of a game and we found a way to get through it.”
Prior to the game, the B’s returned Jakub Lauko to Providence. …
With Jeremy Swayman still out week to week, Montgomery said Keith Kinkaid would most likely play in the second half of the back-to-back against Vancouver on Sunday. …
Before the game there was a nice tribute to former Bruin Peter McNab, the much beloved member of the Lunch Pail AC teams of the late 1970s and early ’80s who died Sunday at the age of 70.