Blues Shut Out Bruins 2-0
BOSTON -- The St. Louis Blues hit the NHL's Christmas break with a 2-0 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night, their fourth win in the last five games.
Sizzling right winger Vladimir Tarasenko and center Robby Fabbri scored third-period goals and Jake Allen stopped 32 shots for his fifth shutout of the season as the Blues (21-11-4) won their fifth straight game at TD Garden.
The Blues, who improved to 10-5-2 on the road, rebounded from blowing a 3-0 lead and losing in Philadelphia on Monday night.
The Bruins, suffering only their second regulation loss in their last 16 games, were blanked for the first time this season, saw their three-game winning streak stopped and fell to 19-10-4 -- on a night they had a chance to move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
Tarasenko, scoring his sixth goal in the last seven games to move into a tie with Dallas Stars center Jamie Benn (also playing Tuesday) for the league lead, took a pass from left winger Magnus Paajarvi as Tarasenko sliced through defensemen Dennis Seidenberg and Kevan Miller. He went in alone on Tuukka Rask and scored his 22nd of the season at 7:35 of the third.
Fabbri took a long pass from defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and broke down the left side alone, firing a wrist shot over Rask's glove and into the top corner with 7:10 left in the game.
Allen wasn't all that busy in his 10th career shutout. His best stops came against right winger Loui Eriksson in the first period and left winger Frank Vatrano in the second.
Not long after the Tarasenko goal, Paajarvi fed center Paul Stastny in front and Rask, who made 27 saves as his five-game winning streak ended, made a huge save to keep the game at 1-0.
Warm temperatures outside made for what looked like soft ice, and might well have cost the Blues on the best chance of the first two periods. Tarasenko came down 2-on-1 with Stastny and made a hard pass -- probably harder than normal because of the ice. The puck went off Stastny's stick.
Also in the second, left winger Alexander Steen let a shot go that glanced off the stick of Miller and hit the post to Rask's left.
Stastny hit the post with an empty net in the closing seconds.
NOTES: Boston LW Max Talbot served the first of his two-game suspension for hitting New Jersey's Jiri Tlusty, with LW Zac Rinaldo coming off IR (after missing three games with an upper body injury) back in the lineup. ... RW Jordan Caron, a former Bruin, made his Blues debut Tuesday night after being recalled from the minors. "We really liked him (in training camp)," said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock. "We really liked his strength on the puck. He had a slow start but he's played great down there lately. He deserves a chance to play." Caron replaced veteran C Scott Gomez in the lineup. ... Blues D Carl Gunnarsson, who left Monday night's game in Philadelphia with an arm injury, was out Tuesday with D Robert Bortuzzo taking his place. ... Both teams come out of the Christmas break with home games Saturday -- the Blues hosting the Dallas Stars and the Bruins the Buffalo Sabres.
