BOSTON (AP) — Kasperi Kapanen and Robert Thomas each scored in the first period, Joel Hofer stopped 36 shots and the St. Louis Blues beat the Boston Bruins 5-1 on Monday night.
Entering the night eight points out of a wild-card spot and tied for 10th in the Western Conference with two other teams, the Blues snapped a three-game losing streak and completed a five-game road trip (2-3) with a solid win.
“This is a big win for our club,” Hofer said. “ That’s obviously a good team over there. Hopefully we can keep this going, going home.”
Kevin Hayes, Brandon Saad and Alexey Toropchenko also scored for St. Louis, which totaled just three goals during its losing streak. It was the Blues’ highest goal total since a 6-3 victory over Edmonton at home on Feb. 15.
David Pastrnak scored his 41st of the season for Boston, which had a two-game winning streak stopped. The Bruins are in position to finish with the NHL’s best record after recording league records with victories (65) and points (135) last season.
St. Louis improved to 26-3-1 this season when it scores first, and 17-1-1 when leading after one period.
Boston pulled goalie Jeremy Swayman for an extra skater with just under 9 minutes left, giving up Toropchenko’s score with 8:33 left.
Kapanen collected a loose puck in the slot and fired a wrister past Swayman for a 1-0 lead midway into the opening period.
“Finally, that’s what I thought,” Kapanen said, smiling, when asked what he thought when the puck bounced over to him. “Finally caught a lucky break. Just happy it went in.”
Skating on a two-man, power-play advantage, Thomas one-timed a pass from Pavel Buchnevich from the right circle for his 21st of the season with 2:01 left in the first.
“It was one of those games where we had a lot of chances, too, but it just wasn’t good enough,” Boston forward Pavel Zacha said. “We have to start playing these games from the beginning. … I think it was a slow start. I think everyone saw that.”
Hayes scored at the end of a 3-on-1 break 4:31 into the second, slipping a wrister between Swayman’s pads to make it 3-0.
After Boston had Justin Brazeau’s goal taken off the board because of a coach’s challenge for offside, Saad’s goal came late in the period when he outworked two Bruins’ defenseman, knocking in his own rebound from the edge of the crease for a 4-0 lead.
The Bruins left the ice at the end of the second to a loud chorus of boos.
Buchnevich played his 500th career game.
Boston captain Brad Marchand’s next goal will be the 400th of his NHL career.
“We had a tough start,” Marchand said. “This time of year teams come out playing for a lot, and we need to do the same.”
UP NEXT
Blues: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night.
Bruins: At the rival Montreal Canadiens Thursday.
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