Bad breaks and a slow start doomed the Boston Bruins, who fell 5-1 to the St. Louis Blues on Monday.
BOSTON – The Boston Bruins fell 5-1 to the St. Louis Blues at TD Garden on Monday. Kasperi Kapanen had a goal and two assists, and Joel Hofer made 34 saves for the Blues in the dominant win.
The loss ends a four-game point streak (3-0-1) for Boston, which drops to 38-14-15 on the season in a halt to the momentum they've built up over the past week. Jeremy Swayman made 18 saves, and David Pastrnak scored the lone goal to reach 41 on the season.
“I didn’t like our start,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “I didn’t think we had the intensity that’s required in this League to start games on time. … We created a lot of good scoring chances. We missed the net, they blocked shots. Their desperation probably was, defensively, a little bit higher than ours.”
Kapanen opened the scoring at 10:13 of the first period, taking advantage of an odd bounce off the boards that fell right to him in the slot. Robert Thomas doubled the lead at 17:59 on a 5-on-3 power play after Trent Frederic and Charlie Coyle took penalties just over a minute apart.
Dorchester native Kevin Hayes pushed it to 3-0 at 4:31 of the second period off the rush. The former Boston College Eagle had a goal and an assist.
Justin Brazeau appeared to cut it to 3-1 at 11:11, with a shot that popped up and fell behind Hofer, but St. Louis successfully challenged the play for offsides to keep it 3-0.
“I thought we had a lot of chances,” Brazeau said. “Obviously they didn’t go in for us and they went in for them. We’ve played a lot of games here recently, so I think it’s just one of those things where we got two more days of practice and just kind of reset.”
Brandon Saad pushed it to 4-0 at 15:25, punching the puck in off a pass from Hayes that hit off his skate then the post.
Pastrnak cut it to 4-1 at 1:48 of the third period with a one-timer through traffic. Pavel Zacha had the secondary assist to extend his point streak to five games (five goals, three assists).
“I think it was [a] slow start, I don’t think we were engaged there,” Zacha said. “I think we started playing good in the second half, which in the NHL is not good enough against any team, so that’s something that we have to get better at.”
In an aggressive attempt to cut the lead further, Montgomery pulled Swayman for an extra attacker at 11:15 of the third, but Alexey Toropchenko relayed Colton Parayko's clearance into the empty net from the red line to make it 5-1 at 11:27.
The Bruins will travel to face the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
"I think it's more about tomorrow and the next few days, about how we carry ourselves at practice," Brad Marchand said. "We've always kind of led as a group, in one big group, and opportunities like this are good for the group to make sure we compete hard, get back on track and be ready for the next one."