Bruins down Blues in St. Louis, 5-2

The Bruins got one of their stars back on Tuesday but it was a couple of the organization s grinders who delivered them their third straight supremacy After shaking off a messy first period Mark Kastelic and Fraser Minten each scored a pair of goals to lead the B s to their second win over former coach Jim Montgomery s Blues - in St Louis Jeremy Swayman made saves for the win and Sean Kuraly had a pair of helpers The B s lost a one-goal lead early in the third period but then scored the next three goals to earn the two points to start their three-game win streak The Bruins welcomed back David Pastrnak two assists after he missed five games with an unspecified injury and started him off on a line with rookie Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov But for the first time in three games the B s identified themselves with a deficit in the early going The B s were not sharp early and needed Swayman to come up with a big save right off the bat on the first shift off a turnover Nick Bjugstadt got behind everyone for a partial breakaway and Pavel Zacha slashed him to give the Blues the first power play of the contest It could have been a penalty shot but it didn t matter because the Blues cashed in at Robert Thomas one-timed a Pavel Buchnevich pass from the high slot and with certain aid from a Jonathan Aspirot screen the B s were down - Swayman came up with a couple more big saves the best being a glove snare on Colton Parayko snap shot from the slot At the end of the first coach Marco Sturm put Pastrnak back on the top line with Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm and the group earned a power play with four seconds left in the period when Geekie took a high-stick from Bjugstadt But the advantage finished the same way as their first one did unsuccessfully despite Geekie hitting a post Kastelic would also hit iron on the shift after the PP The B s started to find the range in the second period and began peppering goalie Joel Hofer with shots Hofer was playing better than Jordan Binnington had played in Boston last week but the B s would eventually get the equalizer at The Pastrnak-Minten-Khusnutdinov line was reunited in the second period and all three forwards crashed the net Hofer stopped Pastrnak and then Khusnutdinov before Minten came from behind the net and swept it home for his fifth of the season While Sturm s new third line scored his new fourth line gave them their first lead at Tanner Jeannot collected a Kastelic rim pass and sent it back to Victor Soderstrom at the right point Soderstrom walked the puck to the middle of the ice and fired a shot that Sean Kuraly tipped and it went off Kastelic past Hofer for his fifth of the year and Soderstrom s first point as a Bruin The B s maintained their lead into the second intermission after outshooting the Blues - in the second period but barely averted tragedy on the the final shift A puck bounced off the end boards and came out for Jake Neighbours who had an empty net But his backhander went off Hampus Lindholm s skate and out of danger But they could not hold the lead After Hofer robbed Minten at one end the Blues tied it at Andrew Peeke tried to shovel a pass behind the net to Hampus Lindholm but Buchnevich stole it and fed Thomas in front for his second of the championship But the B s regained the lead at After Kuraly and Kastelic won a puck behind the net to get it out to Nikita Zadorov at the outside of the left circle the big defenseman fired it back into the crowd at the crease It hit Kuraly and dropped down for Kastelic to knock it home Then the so-called third line went back to work After a Peeke shot went off the post it caromed off the boards and into the slot where Minten one-timed a slapper for his second of the night a his first career two-goal event Pavel Zacha ended it with an empty-netter with left his eighth of the year