St Louis Blue Defeat Boston Bruins in Shootout: Halak Thanks Posts and Crossbar

The Boston Bruins are back home after a 3-1 road trip and the lone loss was at the Verizon Center against the Washington Capitals.

The visitors were the St Louis Blues who are hot with a five-game win streak on the line. Boston just came off their loss the night before so fatigue may be a factor given that they played the game and they had to travel back home.

First Period

Horton got a shot in, beat Halak, but not the post. It was going in off Halak's back, but he dove back to stop it from going in. The play was immediately waved off but it was reviewed, and the call on the ice stood. No goal.

Vladimir Sobotka got his first goal of the season and it would be against his former team. The puck was played off Alexander Steen but it went directly on Sobotka in the low slot who made it count blocker side. Blues 1-0. 

St Louis played well and had their speed game going to keep the puck in the Boston zone. Sloppy play resulted in turnovers and resulted in a 13-6 shots on goal advantage.

Second Period

Andrew Ference took on David Backes after taking exception to a check that was put on him, but the Bruins are down a man as a result of an instigator call.

On St Louis’ man advantage, Boston had a few short-handed attempts showing life was coming back into the Bruins squad.

Mark Stuart and BJ Crombeen went toe to toe and Crombeen got the worst of it.

Horton got a shot off and it went off the crossbar to not count for the second time.  Video review confirmed that the puck did not cross the line. For the second time, the metal was Halak’s best friend and Horton’s worst enemy on this night.

With no score in the second period, Boston did play better and got more quality shots on Halak evening the shots on goal with 12 apiece.

Final Frame

Gregory Campbell got his first as a Bruin to tie it up. Brad Marchand skated along the right side of the ice to get the puck to a centered Campbell. Campbell wasted no time and he one-timed it past Halak to finally solve him in this matchup.

Boston played very sloppy on the power play as there were three odd-man rushes on the same one-man advantage. Chara miscued the puck and if it wasn’t for Patrice Bergeron, it was a good chance for a short-handed goal.

St Louis used their active sticks and speed to create two more chances but Rask and company kept the short-handed bids from being cashed in.

A lot of back and forth in the final few minutes and Krejci nearly put the game away in the dying seconds, but Overtime was needed. For the first time this season, Boston went into OT.

OT

Early in overtime, Krejci was hammered by TJ Oshe and he ended up having to be helped off the ice. It looked like Krejci ended up with a bloody nose and he immediately walked back to the dressing room.

It was later reported that Krejci will be out for at least a week with a mild concussion.

Both goalies played well and it required a shootout to decide the game.

Shootout

Round One

BOS: Bergeron—Nope. Rang the post

STL: Oshe—Yup.

Round Two

BOS: Seguin—Yup

STL: Boyes—Yup

Round Three

BOS: Ryder—Nope. Rang the post

STL: Not required. St Louis wins

Tuuka Rask deserved a better fate than this as he played very well and the Bruins offense could not convert due to two shots that rang the iron on Nathan Horton and in the shootout, two more rang iron. Halak had better buy that net and take it with him because there was the luck for him this night.

Boston's record falls to 7-3-1 for the season and the first time that they have lost back-to-back games.

Next up for the Bruins will be visiting the CONSOL Energy Center to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins Wednesday, November 10th.

This is Cory Ducey saying "Hit Hard, But Keep It Clean"