Blues Tie The Series Against Bruins, Win Game 4, 4-2

The Saint Luis Blues have tied the Stanley Cup finals series to 2-2. Craig Berube’s guys defeated Boston Bruins in Game 4 played at the Enterprise Center last night. The finals result, 4-2 for the hosts.

This was the first home victory in the finals for the Blues who lost their previous six.

“The city has been waiting a long time for this,” said home team’s captain Alex Pietrangelo. “It’s a great sports city, an underrated sports city, in my opinion. The fans are great. They never gave up on us all season.”

And the Blues did everything to repay for that support. Tonight’s game was very demanding, both physically and mentally. For the hosts, it was “do or die,” while on the other side, Bruins were looking for a chance to seal the series at their TD Garden.

Ryan O’Reilly woke up and after eight games, the 28-year old finally scored. And not just once, but two times. He opened the game with 43 seconds after the start and made things much easier for the hosts who were in a desperate situation. This time it was them who had a lead and didn’t have to chase the result.

O’Reilly once again brought the advantage to the Blues in the third period. With 9:22 until the end, he scored from the slot, after Tuukka Rask saved Pietrangelo’s shot. After that, the Bruins went “all or nothing,” pulling Rask out and adding an extra player on the ice. It opened a chance for a quick counter-attack, which Blues used through Brayden Schenn who scored an empty-netter with 1:29 until the buzzer.

“We sometimes don’t play our game, but are able to respond well and get to our game the next one,” said O’Reilly, “and as you see, everyone played well tonight.”

The Blues were much better with killing the penalties, as they managed to defend themselves on both occasions. Just to remind you they went 0 for 4 in Game 3.

https://twitter.com/ColePadawer/status/1135756412775219200

Also, Jordan Binnington was at a much higher level. Blues’ goalie had 21 saves, and was back in his usual mode. Many doubted that the rookie goalie would be able to bounce back mentally after a horrible experience in the previous match, but Binnington once again proved that he is not an ordinary youngster.

The Bruins were leveling the score twice this Monday but didn’t have the strength to make a complete turnaround. Charlie Coyle’s goal at 13:14 in the first period was followed by Vladimir Tarasenko’s score 2:36 afterward.

Brandon Carlo made it 2-2 with 5:41 in the second sequence, but that was all from the guests in this encounter.

“We’ve all got a little more in us, and we’re going to need a little more,” Coyle commented after the game.

What will be a huge problem for the Bruins is the state od Zdeno Chara. Boston’s captain left the game in the second period after being hit in the face following Brayden Schenn’s shot. The puck deflected off of his stick and hit him in the mouth.

Zdeno Chara takes this one right to the face. Bloody and down the tunnel pic.twitter.com/6Oxm7XkpBv

— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) June 4, 2019

According to several sources, his status for Game 5 is not clear, and there is a possibility that the reliable defenseman skips this event.

The series is now moving to Boston. Though some might think that it should be a huge advantage for the Bruins, it doesn’t have to be like that. We already saw that the crowd doesn’t have much of an impact on these two sides, as they both recorded one win apiece on the road.

Game 5 is scheduled for this Thursday night at 8 pm ET.