Last week, the Bruins beat by the Blues by a 5-2 final. And this week, the Bruins once again beat the Blues by a 5-2 final, though this time the Boston victory against Jim Montgomery came in the Blues’ barn.
The Black and Gold’s victory came courtesy of two-goal efforts from both Mark Kastelic and Fraser Minten. Minten’s two-goal night was also the first multi-goal night of his NHL career, and just his second as a pro after scoring a hat trick with the P-Bruins in a Mar. 16 game last season.
Down 1-0 on just the second shot against and after 20 minutes of play, the Bruins answered with two goals in less than two minutes in the second period, the first of which coming from Minten before Kastelic’s tip.
And when the Blues knotted things up early in the third period, the B’s quickly jumped back in front thanks to Kastelic’s net-front jam on Joel Hofer. Kastelic’s second goal of the night was good for his sixth goal of the campaign, putting him just a single goal away from matching his career-high, which set in a 65-game 2022-23 season.
Minten then doubled that Boston lead, while Pavel Zacha decided to take the hammer to St. Louis with the empty-net dagger.
In goal, the Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman stopped 24 of 26 for the victory.
The big news for the Bruins came with the return of David Pastrnak.
Absent from the Black and Gold lineup for the last five games, Pastrnak was considered a game-time decision ahead of this contest, and ultimately felt good enough to suit up for Boston. Skating in a third-line role with Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov, Pastrnak finished Tuesday’s contest with two assists and three shots in 15:36 of time on ice.
The Bruins are back in action Thursday night in Winnipeg.