Carl Gunnarsson beat Tuukka Rask from near the blue line with 3;51 remaining in overtime to give the St. Louis Blues an enormous 3-2 overtime win over the Boston Bruins in Game 2, tying the Stanley Cup series.
Gunnarsson unleashed a rising shot that soared over Rask’s blocker after playing catch with Ryan O”Reilly with a delayed penalty on. It was his first career playoff goal.
The Bruins opened the scoring 4:44 into the game on Charlie Coyle’s power-play goal, which featured a pretty primary assist by Louie DeBrusk.
St. Louis responded 4:53 later when Roberto Bortuzzo rather harmless looking shot from the side boards deflected in off the knee of Matt Grzelcyk.
A wide-open Joakim Nordstrom took a pass from behind the net from Sean Kuraly and slipped a backhander by Jordan Binnington 40 seconds later to put Boston back on top.
Vladimir Tarasenko stuffed in a third-shot rebound to complete a 2-on-1 with Jaden Swchwartz to even things up at 14:55 of the game.
That would be all the scoring into Gunnarsson, who also drew an assist on Bortuzzo’s goal, ended it.
Binnington finished the game with 21 saves while the much busy Rask stopped 34 shots.
The win was the first-ever for the Blues franchise in a Cup Final game. They were swept in three prior appearances, twice by Montreal and once by Boston.
SBN Recaps: St. Louis Game Time – Stanley Cup of Chowder
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