St Louis Blues @ Boston Bruins 0-2 - 11/18

The Boston Bruins were never worried about goaltender Tuukka Rask’s slow start to the season and he’s rewarding their faith in him. Rask continued his recent hot play with his first shutout of the season, making 33 saves in a 2-0 win against the St. Louis Blues at TD Garden. The Blues had won 10 of their past 11 games and were averaging close to three goals per game. Rask made 15 saves in the third period. The Bruins had three shots on goal in the third. Rask is 10-5-0 with a .915 save percentage and 2.38 goals-against average. Center Patrice Bergeron and defenseman Torey Krug scored for the Bruins, who have won six in a row at home. The Bruins' defensive effort was more impressive because they played most of the second and third periods without defenseman Adam McQuaid, who left the game with 15:01 remaining in the second. McQuaid appeared to injure his arm or hand blocking a shot by Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. Bruins coach Claude Julien did not have an update on McQuaid afterward. The Blues had their three-game winning streak snapped. Blues goaltender Brian Elliott made 15 saves; St. Louis outshot Boston 33-17. Bergeron took advantage of a St. Louis turnover to give Boston a 1-0 lead. After Elliott handed off the puck to defenseman Ian Cole behind the Blues net, Cole spun and passed to the front of the net, where Bergeron shot the puck past Elliott at 5:46 of the first period. The Blues outshot the Bruins 8-7 in the first. St. Louis carried play early in the second period and it took Boston 6:48 to land their first shot on goal. Krug turned the momentum Boston’s way with a goal from the top of the right circle at 11:31. The Bruins thought they had another goal with nine seconds left. However, Carl Soderberg’s backhand pass to the front of the net went off Matt Fraser’s torso and past Elliott. The goal was waved off because of goaltender interference.

Blues Quotes

Ken Hitchcock: “Well I just think they kept us on the perimeter all night. I know we had a lot of shots on goal, but we weren’t really a threat. We were trying to make the extra play all night, rather than pound it in and look for the greasy goal. They allowed us to enter the zone, kept us on the perimeter, and we stayed on the perimeter all night. [We] did the same thing on the power play. I think in style points, it looked probably like we were playing good, but there was no detail in doing the hard things that you have to on the road to score. We just allowed ourselves to stay on the perimeter.”
David Backes: “We make our own luck, we have to put more in to get more out. We played a tough opponent today that made it hard for all of the ice that was out there. Maybe that was a little bit of a surprise with how hard they were playing and we are not going to make excuses, we need to bring a little bit more to earn those spaces to get to loose pucks and find a way to whack a few in.”