BOSTON — It’s not always the stars who shine the brightest in the Stanley Cup final.
 |
| Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues reacts after allowing a third period goal |
Sure, on most nights, you can count on the fact that big-name players such Tuukka Rask or Patrice Bergeron or Brad Marchand will carry the load. On other nights, it’s a fourth-line forward who was drafted 133rd overall who comes up the biggest.
Sean Kuraly will never be mistaken for a player such as Bergeron. But in Game 1 of the final, the 26-year-old centre did a pretty good impression when he scored the winning goal and picked up an assist in a 4-2 victory against the St. Louis Blues on Monday night.
“He’s been doing it all year,” said Bergeron. “That line got us going obviously and got us the game-winner. We’re a team that’s relied on everybody all year and tonight was another example.”
It was Kuraly’s third goal of the playoffs. He had just eight in 71 regular season games this year. But this isn’t the regular season anymore.
At this time of year, games — and playoff rounds — are won or lost based on which team can squeeze more big moments, more big goals and more big-time contributions from their little-known players.
You need depth to make it this far. And you need even more of it to ultimately win the Cup.
In Game 1, Boston was the deeper team as they dug out of a 2-0 hole in the second period with four straight goals in the come-from-behind win — their eighth straight going back to Game 4 of their second-round series against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Game 2 is in Boston on Wednesday.
“It’s only a quarter of the way there,” said Bergeron. “We know they’re going to come out even stronger for Game 2. We have to be ready for that.”
The Bruins got two goals from a pair of defencemen who have combined to score four goals in the playoffs. They also got a crowd-pumping hit from 5-foot-9 Torey Krug, who literally skated the length of the ice — without a helmet on his head — to mete out revenge on Robert Thomas.
That hit, coupled with Kuraly’s deadlock-breaking goal earlier in the third period and an empty-netter from Brad Marchand, had the sold-out TD Garden chanting “We want the Cup!”
“That’s the NHL today,” said Krug. “If you get contributions from your back-end, if you get contributions from your bottom-six forward, you’re going to win a lot of hockey games and you’re going to have a chance to go far in the playoffs. That’s what we’ve had up until this point and that’s what we had tonight. And that’s why we won the game. It’s crucial.
Taking a pass at the side of the net from Noel Acciari, Kuraly fought off a check from St. Louis defenceman Joel Edmundson for what was easily the biggest goal of his career. And while it was somewhat unexpected, Kuraly wasn’t surprised. Heck, he had imagined the moment — including the celebration — a day earlier.
“I’ve thought about the games and I’ve thought about scoring,” Kuraly, who is writing a blog for NHL.com, wrote on the day before Game 1. “I’ve definitely celebrated a few times in my mind. Even in practice, if you watch me in practice the last few days, I’m celebrating like I scored a big goal.”
Having swept the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final, the Bruins entered the Stanley Cup on a week-long layoff. And for the first 20 or so minutes, they looked like a team that been sitting around and waiting.
Brayden Schenn gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 7:23 in the first period on a play that began with his aggressive forecheck. Intercepting an outlet pass in the offensive zone, Schenn fired a shot on net that kicked out to Jaden Schwartz, who’s shot then bounced off Tuukka Rask’s pads and back out to Schenn, who walked into the slot and beat Rask for his third goal of the playoffs.
In the second period, Schenn stole a David Pastrnak drop pass from behind the net and then fed Vladimir Tarasenko in front to make it 2-0.
“Schenn, you’ve got to know where he is at all times,” Marchand had said a day earlier. “He competes extremely hard. He’s very physical and he’s dangerous around the net.”
While Schenn was dangerous, the Blues played with danger by sending a steady stream of players into the penalty box. And against a team as dangerous on the power play as the Bruins, who entered the final with a playoff leading 34% success rate on the man-advantage, it ended up costing them.
Shortly after Boston defenceman Connor Clifton cut St. Louis’ lead in half on a backdoor pass from Kuraly, the Bruins tied the game on a power play goal from Charlie McAvoy. From there, the Bruins’ fourth line took over.
“They woke us up tonight,” said Bruins forward Marcus Johansson. “They won us the game.”
0 Comments:
Post a Comment