Stanley Cup Finals Game 4: Boston 2 – St. Louis 4
After Boston blue the doors off St. Louis in Game 3, where Jordan Binnington was pulled for the first time in his career, it was clear the Bruins should have had the momentum coming into this game. However, Binnington in his rookie season was 12-2 after a loss. This led to the Blues coming out of the gate fast and very physical. They would score to take a 1-0 lead just 43 seconds into the game after a shot was blocked by Tuukka Rask around the back of the net where Ryan O’Reilly picked it up and scored on a wraparound shot.
As we got inside the final eight minutes of the first period, the Bruins would break through and even up the game. Zdeno Chara fired a shot that Binnington saved but as he has done so often in this series, he gave up a juicy rebound. Charlie Coyle crashed the net hard after the Chara shot and was able to pick up the rebound and put it in the back of the net.
With the first period winding down, the Blues would score to take a one goal lead once again after Vladimir Tarasenko was able to beat Rask for the third time in the series. The rest of the period, both teams traded a few chances, but we would head to the first intermission with the score 2-1 Blues. In the second period the Bruins started the period great, but after Zdeno Chara blocked a shot off his stick into his mouth his presence was missed as the Blues onslaught started. The Bruins would get a power play that the Blues killed off for the first time since Game 2 and then the momentum was fully on their side. They held the puck in the offensive zone for what seemed like an eternity (in reality it was 2-3 minutes) and kept tired Bruins skaters on the ice. Tuukka Rask came up huge and saved the B’s from going down by two goals.
Eventually, Connor Clifton would take a penalty for hitting to the head on Vladimir Tarasenko, but after seeing a replay, I think Tarasenko sold one pretty good, because he was barely clipped. As it seemed that this was going to help continue the onslaught, Brad Marchand picked the puck up in the neutral zone, and held it in the attacking zone waiting for reinforcements. He would chip the puck up to Bergeron who would catch it and drop it for the shot that Binnington got in front of, but the rebound went right to Brandon Carlo who would tie the game at 2.
We would then move on to the third period where the Bruins definitely looked gassed, much like in Game 2 when they also played with five defenders for most of the game. The Blues would capitalize on this as they would get a great scoring opportunity when Tuukka made a save but the rebound fell right to O’Reilly for his second goal of the night to make it 3-2 Blues. The period would wind down and the Bruins would pull Rask for the extra attacker, but the Blues forechecking was relentless and they would put one in the empty net to seal it. 4-2 Blues.
The series shifts back to Boston for Game 5 on Thursday night at 8pm.
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