Robert Thomas and Philip Broberg each had one-goal, two-assist performances to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 4-1 lead over the visiting Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
Broberg netted the eventual game-winner in the second period as the Blues overcame an early 1-0 deficit with the final four tallies of the game.
Jimmy Snuggerud and Jake Neighbours also scored and Joel Hofer made 31 saves in goal for St. Louis, which had been shut out in its two previous contests.
A 2-for-3 showing on the power play helped lift the Blues.
Fourteen of Hofer’s stops came in the third period. Boston held a 14-2 shot advantage in the final frame and 32-18 for the game.
James Hagens scored the lone Boston goal, and Jeremy Swayman stopped 14 of the 18 shots he faced.
The Bruins dropped both ends of a two-game road trip.
Hagens continued a stellar start to his full rookie season in highlight-reel fashion at 5:28 of the first period, making a crafty between-the-legs deflection of Casey Mittelstadt’s feed off the wall to beat Hofer on the blocker side.
The St. Louis power play needed only four seconds to net the game-tying goal with 4:17 left before the first intermission. After Robert Thomas won the faceoff back to Broberg at the top of the right circle, Snuggerud ripped a one-time shot past Swayman from the opposite dot.
Broberg put home his own goal at 5:17 of the second, giving the hosts their first lead of the night at 2-1. The defenseman took Connor McMichael’s pass behind the goal line and wired home a wrist shot from the high slot.
The Blues generated momentum off a strong first penalty kill to add to their lead at 12:08. Thomas came over the offensive blue line, walked down the middle of the ice and whipped a shot from between the circles through a defender and past Swayman.
Early in the third, Hofer made a key save on JJ Peterka on the doorstep after a slick cross-ice feed from Pavel Zacha. He also kept Boston off the board when he stopped Mark Kastelic’s shot on net after recovering from coming out of his crease to play a loose puck.
Neighbours added insurance to the St. Louis lead with another power-play marker at 12:42 of the final frame, knocking in the rebound of a Broberg point shot that sailed through traffic filling the slot. The play started with another offensive zone faceoff win.
–Field Level Media
