The St. Louis Blues evened out the Stanley Cup Final with another strong bounce-back performance following a loss in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Ryan O’Reilly scored two goals, including the game-winner, helping lift his team to a 4-2 victory, tying the best-of-7 series. The win was their first home victory in a Cup Final (1-7).
Vladimir Tarasenko scored, Brayden Schenn had a goal (empty netter) and an assist, and Alex Pietrangelo had two assists for the Blues, who went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill after going 0-for-4 in Game 3.
Blues defenseman Vince Dunn had an assist and three shots on goal in 12:57 in his first game since May 15. He’s missed the last six games with a mouth injury.
Jordan Binnington, who moved within one victory of matching the NHL rookie record for wins in a single postseason, made 21 saves after allowing five goals on 19 shots and being pulled on Saturday night.
“We knew what we had to do tonight to be a better team,” said St. Louis coach Craig Berube. “First of all, our discipline was a lot better, and second of all, just, we were relentless, I thought, tonight. We didn’t stop for 60 minutes.”
Charlie Coyle and Brando Carlo scored, and Tuukka Rask made 34 saves for Boston, who saw a five-game road winning streak end.
Carlo scored on the shorthand to become the 20th Bruins player with a goal in the 2019 playoffs, a new franchise record. With the primary assist Patrice Bergeron is now in sole possession of second place on the Bruins all-time postseason scoring list with 103 points.
Coyle is the third player in Bruins history to have a goal streak of at least three games in the Cup Final. Johnny Bucyk scored in all four games against the Blues in 1970 and Roy Conacher scored in four consecutive games in 1939 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The visitors had to play with five defenseman for the last 36:53 with captain Zdeno Chara leaving the game after getting hit in the face by a shot from Schenn at 3:07 of the second period. He was sat on the bench for the third period wearing a full, clear face shield, but was advised by doctors that he couldn’t play.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy said he wasn’t sure whether Chara would play in Game 5 on Thursday (8pm ET – NBC)
This is the 16th time in the last 19 seasons/years and the 41st time in NHL history that the Cup Final will require at least six games.
Up Next:
Blues v Bruins – Thursday, June 6 (8pm – NBC)
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