Bedard: By finding their game and leaving Boston with a split, Blues seem to have new-found life

Being around the St. Louis Blues locker room following their 3-2 overtime victory on Wednesday night, you got the feeling that not only did they get a reprieve from their death row sentence that has ensnared many a Bruins playoff foe, but the Blues might just have new life.

And now, as the series shifts to St. Louis for Games 3 and 4 — where the Blues now have home-ice advantage after their split in Boston — the Bruins definitely have their work cut out for them.

"They came harder than the last game," said Charlie Coyle. "They had pace, they hit, and they were all over the puck. We expected that. I don’t think our play was up to par with theirs and you see they get the result they earned. ... We just got to reset."

But this wasn't about the result, which came about from Carl Gunnarsson's slap shot just 3:51 into overtime on a delayed penalty and halted Boston's impressive eight-game win streak (that's part of it, because after Boston's four unanswered goals delivered a convincing Game 1 victory, it felt like it might never end).

No, this was about the manner in which Boston's first defeat in a month (Game 3 at Columbus on April 30th) came about.

Namely, it was exactly the way St. Louis loves to play. And it represented about as poorly as things can go for the Bruins.

Consider that the 14-shot deficit by the Bruins in Game 2 (37-23) marked just the fifth time all season the Bruins were outshot by that many. And it hadn't happened in over three months (Feb. 18, a 6-5 OT victory at San Jose, which just succumbed to these Blues).

"They seemed to play with more urgency tonight than they did Game 1," said Bruce Cassidy. "I thought they were on top of us, tighter than they did the first game. They didn’t allow us to get the space. As a result, we didn’t seem to win as many races as we did Game 1 to pucks. Some of that is on us. I don’t think we managed it well enough. I think we got spread out all over the ice. So, give them credit for being tighter than us and getting to pucks first. As a result, spent a lot of time in our end. So, that was self-inflicted. Some of it is how they play. They’ve done it to other teams. So give them credit for playing their game well."

Sure, some of what went on in Game 2 had to do with the fact that the Bruins had to play the final two-plus periods with just five defensemen after Matt Grzelcyk had to be taken to the hospital after taking a headshot into the boards. The Bruins will be fully staffed when it's time to drop the puck for Game 3, so they'll be on an even playing surface.

But this was also equal parts sloppy and unfocused play by the Bruins — how many turnovers and failed clears?! — and the Blues finding their game.

"I thought that our third period was really good, and you know, we didn’t really need to change a whole lot," said St. Louis coach Craig Berube about overtime. "Again, it just boils down to doing a good job, managing the puck through the neutral zone, getting it in deep and skating and getting on the forecheck and, you know, good sticks but body contact and getting the puck back and then, you know, we do a good job in the offensive zone of possessing the puck, moving for each other, supporting the puck, and you know, we use our D a lot and they did a good job tonight, our D. I thought they did an excellent job of not getting shots blocked. They did a good job of shooting pucks by people, and that allowed us to have more puck possession."

Then there was also the resiliency the Blues showed. We've seen a lot of teams this postseason wave the white flag when the Bruins start to press their advantage (hello Carolina in the 6-2 Game 2 loss). And St. Louis definitely had that opportunity when Coyle opened the scoring just 4:44 into the game. That made it five-straight Boston goals since they trailed 2-0 early in Game 1.

But there would be no Hurricanes-like surrender in these Blues. Not only did they even the game on Robert Bortuzzo's tally (two goals from their bottom D pairing?) at 9:37 of the first, they didn't flinch after Joakim Nordstrom gave the Bruins the lead back less than a minute later. St. Louis evened the game later in the period, and there it stayed until Gunnarsson's game-winner.

That kind of pluck from a Bruins opponent hasn't been seen in some time — and makes this trip to St. Louis a bit more daunting than the last trip to Carolina.

"We felt like we were playing well, we’ve come back from a lot of games where we’ve been down," said Alex Pietrangelo. "Resilient group, we just keep on playing.

"Anytime you can get one on the road, obviously a tough building to come in and play ... it’s big for us, we’ve been a good road team. Game 1 didn’t go the way we wanted to but we’ll be ready here for these home games."

The good news for the Bruins is that they split the home games to start their first two series against Toronto and Columbus, they managed splits on the road and ended up winning each series.

They might have to channel that same type of energy after watching St. Louis find its game and assert itself in the series.

"They’ll be good. They’re going home, their fans will be behind them just like ours are," said Cassidy. "We went into a hostile environment in Carolina, very loud building, won a couple there. Columbus, won a couple there, Toronto. We got a veteran group, they’ll bounce back, they’ll be ready to go. I don’t think at this time of the year the venue will — I mean I’m sure it will help St. Louis, but from our point of view we’ll play wherever they tell us to and we just got to play better."