Blues one win from Cup
BOSTON — Lord Stanley’s Cup will be in attendance at Enterprise Center Sunday night when the Stanley Cup Finals return to St. Louis for Game 6 with the Blues leading, 3-2.
In a duel between two of the playoffs’ best goalies, Jordan Binnington of St. Louis and Boston’s Tuukka Rask, the Blues topped the Bruins, 2-1, Thursday night at TD Garden to push Boston to the brink and move within a game of their first NHL title.
Binnington stopped 38 shots and Ryan O’Reilly and David Perron scored for St. Louis to lead the Blues to victory in a pivotal game on the road.
The Blues have won two games in a row since a 7-2 loss at home and return to St. Louis with a chance to clinch the first NHL championship
in franchise history.
It helps that the Blues are riding a red-hot goalie of late.
“Unbelievable. He won one for us,” defenseman Colton Parayko said of Binnington.
Rask stopped 19 shots and Jake DeBrusk scored for Boston. The Bruins were lifted by the return of captain Zdeno Chara, who left Game 4 dripping blood after taking a deflected puck off his face. He wore a full-face shield on his helmet, but was unable to provide more than an emotional boost..
O’Reilly scored in the opening minute of the second period, backhanding in a rebound for his third goal in the past five periods. It was still 1-0 midway through the third when the referees disregarded a leg sweep by Tyler Bozak that knocked Noel Acciari out of the game.
Perron followed with a shot that banked off Rask’s pad and into the net. The fans responded with a vulgar chant and a shower of rally towels; the public address announcer eventually asked them to stop the jeering.
Boston did seem inspired — or at least desperate — and cut the deficit to one goal on a delayed penalty with about 6½minutes left. Torey Krug took a high stick to the face at the blue line, but he played on, straightened his helmet and dished the puck to DeBrusk for a onetimer past Binnington.