Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues. Two teams that were never meant to make it. The Lightning were supposed to win the whole thing, or at least the Eastern Conference. The Flames or Predators were supposed to conquer the West. But hockey never goes as planned. Opportunity opened up for the Bruins as soon as the Lightning were swept by the Blue Jackets, and they capitalized. With Tampa out Boston was the favorite in the East. Meanwhile, the Blues ranked 3rd in their division and yet prevailed through Winnipeg and San Jose, the 2nd ranked in their divisions and 3rd and 4th in their conference.
The first game resulted as predicted, with a Bruins win. However, the way it went, the 4 unanswered goals, total dominance, could never have been expected. Boston was down 2-0 after a Vladimir Tarasenko goal 1 minute into the second period. A minute later Kuraly forces a 2 on 2 and Clifton finishes. Later, on the power-play, with 7 mins left in the period, Charlie McAvoy sniped one past Binnington despite being on a one v two. The Blues had it coming with Boston dominating the power-play with a few shots, but moreover, total possession. A fifth of the way through the third period, Sean Kuraly scored with his second goal scoring involvement. Halfway through the third the magic happened. Tory Krug, without his helmet, checked Robert Thomas in the Blues defensive zone. An absolute monster of a hit, it inspired the Bruins to keep going and they ended the game with Marchand scoring on an empty net.
The second game was not as rampant with scoring, but more to the likening of any defensive enthusiast. Charlie Coyle scored on a Bruins PP making it 1-0. Pat Maroon later tied with an insane deflection that Rask had no chance of stopping. Joakim Nordstrom put the Bruins up 2-1 with a 5-hole shot on Binnington. At the end of the first, Jaden Schwartz forced a breakaway and despite missing, Tarasenko got the rebound, missed, and somehow scored off of that rebound. The game then went scoreless through the second and third periods, with both teams displaying monster power-play kill. However, 4 minutes into OT, Carl Gunnarsson came up clutch for the Blues and tied the series 1-1.
The series will now be moving to St Louis and the Blues playing at home. It seems as though at this rate, we could have a Game 7 series to find the Stanley Cup winner. However, only time will tell. Game 3 will be played Saturday 6/1 at 8:00 p.m. EST, and Game 4 Monday 6/3 at 8:00 p.m. EST.
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