ST. LOUIS — David Pastrnak flashed a wry smile, brimming with confidence. No even-strength points through the first two games of the Stanley Cup…
ST. LOUIS — David Pastrnak flashed a wry smile, brimming with confidence.
No even-strength points through the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final for the first line put plenty of pressure on Boston’s best players to produce. Pastrnak shrugged it off, saying on scale of 1 to 10 they felt the pressure level was something around a 2.
Then they got on the ice and delivered.
The stars led Boston to a 7-2 rout of the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Defenseman Torey Krug scored a goal and had three assists, top-line center Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists, Pastrnak and Brad Marchand got on the scoresheet and the top power-play unit was a perfect 4 for 4 — on four shots.
“It’s about time we get going,” said Pastrnak, who scored his first goal in the final. “I still think we haven’t played our best. But we are up 2-1 and we need to meet tomorrow, look at the video and get even better. That’s our focus in this group, and we’ve got a lot of good players, so we know we can even elevate more.”
Game 4 is Monday night in St. Louis.
Boston chased Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington, silenced actor and Blues super fan Jon Hamm and a raucous crowd that was fired up for the first Cup Final game in St. Louis in 49 years. The Bruins survived an initial onslaught and then simply took it to the home team.
“We’ve been through so much together this year that we just rely on one another in uncomfortable situations,” said Marchand, who assisted on Krug’s goal.
