On Tuesday (Nov. 12) the Boston Bruins (8-7-2) took a trip out west for their first meeting of the season with the St. Louis Blues (7-9-0), looking to continue on a decent start to the month of November where they have won three of their first five games. In Boston’s last game, they fell 3-2 in overtime to the Ottawa Senators – the same game where they failed to land a single shot on goal in the entire third period. For the Blues, they came into the game having lost two consecutive games including an 8-1 blowout loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday (Nov. 9).
The opening period was pretty evenly matched, ending the frame still deadlocked at zero. Boston did have two power plays that came up with nothing while the Blues had one of their own later in the period that was also killed off. Heading into Tuesday’s contest, both Boston and St. Louis had two of the five worst power play percentages in the entire NHL, both sitting under 15%. Aside from the solid on-ice play, the period was not all great for the Bruins as defenseman Hampus Lindholm left the game and did not return following a blocked shot that appeared to hit him in the lower leg.
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In period two, the scoreboard did change as St. Louis piled on two quick goals in less than three minutes – both on the man advantage, to take a 2-0 lead. Boston’s struggling penalty kill did a poor job on the goals against as both Brayden Schenn (second of the season) and Oskar Sundqvist (second of the season) scored in almost identical fashion. Each time, the goal-scorer was on the right side of Swayman and the pass went directly across the crease for an easy tap-in – Schenn and Sundqvist were all alone, unprotected.
Having struggled to score goals in recent games, the morale was low for Boston to make a game out of this one, but they did just that in the third period. Less than five minutes into the frame, David Pastrnak stripped Colton Parayko of the puck in the neutral zone leading to an odd-man rush that led to Pastrnak feeding Morgan Geekie who buried it past Jordan Binnington for his first goal of the season.
Before the halfway point, the Bruins would strike again to tie the game at two. Charlie McAvoy rifled a pass from his own end down to the Blues’ blue line where Justin Brazeau brought it into the offensive zone. After a few bounces, Brad Marchand slid a pass back to McAvoy for a one-time blast from the point that beat Binnington, tying the game. To close off a massive third period, with less than two minutes to go in regulation, a net-front scramble somehow had the puck escape to Charlie McAvoy who then found Pastrnak above the faceoff circles for a one-timer of his own that just barely squeaked through Binnington for the go-ahead goal.
David Pastrnak gives the Bruins a 3-2 lead.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) November 13, 2024
Huge goal, to put it lightly. pic.twitter.com/CuSEM7rh7z
Boston closed out the period with the 3-2 win, improving to 4-1-1 in their last six games in what was their gutsiest win of the season thus far. It may very well be a massive confidence booster as the big players for the Bruins stepped up late to drive the team to a road win. They’ll have a chance to try and keep the momentum rolling as the two-game road trip continues on Thursday (Nov. 14) against the Dallas Stars. For the Blues, they start a three-game road trip out east with a game against the Buffalo Sabres also on Thursday. Boston and St. Louis will meet again for the final time in 2024-25 on Saturday (Nov. 16) for a matinee game in Boston.
