Bruins Rally From Two-Goal Deficit To Take 1-0 Stanley Cup Final Lead Over Blues
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Bruins have themselves a 1-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.
Boston rallied from a two-goal deficit in the second period to earn a 4-2 victory on Monday night in Game 1 of the series.
The Bruins had been 0-2 this postseason when trailing after two periods, but they picked the right time to buck that trend.
After 10 full days off, Tuukka Rask only had to make 18 saves for the Bruins. For St. Louis, Jordan Binnington stopped 34 Boston shots.
The game entered the third period tied at 2-2, though the Bruins had just outshot St. Louis 18-3 in the middle period of the game.
Sean Kuraly broke that tied just over minutes into the third period, when he battled in front and muscled in a puck past Binnington. Noel Acciari picked up the primary assist, after digging for a rebound off a Zdeno Chara point shot.
Brad Marchand scored into an empty net with 1:49 left in the game to make it a 4-2 lead for Boston.
The Blues opened the scoring just 7:23 into the first period. Rask stopped a Brayden Schenn shot through traffic, but the puck found its way back to Schenn, who stepped into some open space and beat Rask high to the blocker side for the first goal of the series.
The Blues took that 1-0 lead into the first intermission, after each team landed eight shots on net in the opening period.
St. Louis doubled that lead just 60 seconds into the first period, off a turnover from David Pastrnak behind the Boston net. Schenn happily accepted the free puck and dished to Vladimir Tarasenko, who one-timed a shot past Rask to make it a 2-0 lead for the visitors.
But the Bruins answered just over a minute later, when defenseman Connor Clifton drove to the net and redirected a feed from Sean Kuraly past Binnington for Boston's first goal, which cut the St. Louis lead in half.
Boston would tie the game later in the second period, when Charlie McAvoy carried into the offensive zone and fired a shot past Binnington on the power play. The puck appeared to have redirected off the stick of Alex Pietrangelo.
The Bruins entered the night riding a seven-game winning streak, after winning three straight games to eliminate the Blue Jackets in the second round and sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference finals. The Blues entered having won the final three games of their conference finals against the San Jose Sharks.
Members of the 2011 Bruins were in attendance and served as honorary banner captains prior to puck drop. Other attendees of note included Chase Rice and Lil Nas X -- both of whom performed at the pregame concert at City Hall Plaza -- and several members of the Patriots, including team owner Robert Kraft.
Game 2 will be played Wednesday night in Boston, before the series shifts to St. Louis for Game 3 on Saturday.
