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Luckily for the Bruins, the old adage that states it’s not how you start but how you finish held true to form as they opened their pursuit of championship lucky No. 13 since 2002 for the Boston professional sports trophy collection. Once they found their form, the Bruins were able to shake off a shaky first 21 minutes and take Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.
The last time these teams met in the Stanley Cup Final 49 years ago, the ending was unforgettable for the Bruins with Bobby Orr launched into the air and into Boston sports lore. In the rematch, the beginning was forgettable for the Bruins, but it ultimately proved forgivable. The Bruins gave themselves a pucks pardon and a 4-2 victory on Monday night at TD Garden.
Related: ‘Don’t make that guy mad.’ Torey Krug’s hit exemplified the Bruins’ night
The first part of this three-period play didn’t follow the Boston script. The last 39 minutes the Bruins and Blues shared a stage, but the Bruins got all the lines and all four goals. The Blues were basically relegated to set scenery. The Bruins took the final bow from a commanding performance, outshooting the Blues, 30-12, over the final 40 minutes and 38-20 for the game.
The encouraging notion for Boston is that this was far from their most complete, most efficient performance, far from 60 minutes of Stanley Cup-winning worthy hockey. Yet, they flipped the proverbial switch and walked away with their eighth straight postseason victory. Good teams, championship teams, find a way to win when they’re not at their best. They did it with two of their goals coming from defensemen and the third-period game-winner coming from hard-hat fourth-liner Sean Kuraly. They did it getting nothing but an icing-on-the-cake empty-net goal from the Perfection Line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak. The celebrated trio was a combined minus-4 even with Marchand’s empty-netter.
“We’re a team that’s relied on everybody all year, and tonight was another great example,” said Bergeron. “I think that’s how you get to this point. It’s by relying on everybody. It has been the way that we’ve been successful is when everyone is chipping in and doing the job on any given night.”
It was an ideal result on a night with a less-than-ideal beginning that had the Spoked-Believers shaking their heads instead of shaking the Garden.
The Bruins returned to the ice for game action for the first time in 11 days. It was the classic rest-or-rust quandary with the Bruins coming in riding a seven-game postseason winning streak. The answer early for the Bruins was rust, as they went down, 2-0, a minute into the second period, when a ghastly giveaway by Pastrnak led to a Vladimir Tarasenko tally. They lost an edge that had nothing to do with balance or skate blades.
“We were sluggish,” said Bruins defenseman Torey Krug. “I think they were probably happy with how the first went and the start of the second, so eventually we got to our game. It just took a little longer than we hoped.”
Related: Bruce Cassidy increasingly called on Sean Kuraly and the fourth line, and they delivered
Entering the commencement of the Cup Final, neither team had trailed for a single solitary second in their last three games. The Blues broke the ice on Causeway Street, silencing the riled-up Bruins fans. Opportunistic in the slot, Brayden Schenn ringed the puck past Tuukka Rask top shelf at 7:23 of the first period. Schenn got the puck after his original shot ricocheted off some bodies. It appeared Marchand lost track of Schenn as he scooped up the loose puck in the slot.
The Bruins found themselves in the unusual position of playing from behind. The Blues, back in the Cup Final for the first time since being sent home by Orr’s iconic goal, weren’t here to play frozen foils for another Boston championship parade during these halcyon days in the Hub of Hardware.
The Bruins finally decided to show up just 76 seconds in the second after seeing their deficit double. Rookie defenseman Connor Clifton flicked a feed from Kuraly past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington to the delight of the TD Garden crowd.
The Bruins tied it at 12:41 of the second as their NHL playoff-leading power play, dulled early on by their hockey hiatus, came to life. After Clifton was cross-checked by Oskar Sundqvist, the Bruins cashed in when Charlie McAvoy lugged the puck into the Blues zone and ripped a wrister past Binnington glove-side.
The Bruins’ hockey hibernation was over. St. Louis was in survival mode in the second period, outshot (18-3) and outclassed as the Bruins dominated and dangled the Blues at will. The Bruins held the Blues without a shot on goal for the final 8:15 of the period and the first 4:33 of the third.
“I wouldn’t make it a habit. I don’t think we’re going to be able to do that every night against good teams. St. Louis is certainly a good team,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy of his charges’ dominant response. “But I think some of it was we weren’t too happy with the way the game was going. We weren’t playing our game. We weren’t playing to our standard. I think after the second goal that kind of woke us up . . . We were able to build on that first goal, but our team has been resilient all year if you watch our group. They’re going to respond, and tonight was a good example.”
The Bruins took the lead at 5:21 of the third on Kuraly’s tally. The key to the sequence was that Binnington got handcuffed on a long-range Zdeno Chara shot and bobbled the puck, putting it back into play. Noel Acciari, he of the irrepressible fourth line, got the free puck, and it ended up on the stick of Kuraly. He banged it past Binnington, who could only bow his mask toward the ice after his miscue. The Blues trailed in the playoffs for the first time in 254 minutes and 41 seconds.
Don’t poke the bear, as they say. The Blues had. Once the Bruins got their skates out of quicksand and their heads back in the game, the Bruins were physical and forceful. Emblematic of their play was a helmet-less hit by Krug on Blues rookie Robert Thomas in the St. Louis end at 9:41 of the third period.
Message delivered, emphatically.
Game 1 was a good omen for the Bruins. Since the Stanley Cup Final went to a best-of-seven format in 1939, the club that has won Game 1 has gone on to hoist the Cup 61 of 79 times (77.2 percent). But the Bruins know they’ll need to be better to lift Lord Stanley’s cherished silver chalice.
“This time of year it’s obviously about the wins, and it’s enjoy it right now then be ready for [Game 2]. We know there’s a lot more work ahead for us,” said Bergeron. “That’s the way we have to approach it. Obviously, be happy about tonight’s win, but we need more.”
The Bruins got away with one to take Game 1.
Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @cgasper.