BOSTON — Goaltender Tuukka Rask, aided by a strong defensive effort by his teammates, authored his first shutout of the season as the Boston Bruins cooled off the sizzling St. Louis Blues 2-0 on Tuesday night.
Rask, the defending Vezina Trophy winner, turned aside 33 shots, including 15 in the third period, in his 24th career shutout.
His best save of the game may have come midway through the third period, on a rebound that went off Bruins defenseman Dougie Hamilton and almost beat Rask. Most of the other shots were from the outside or long range, and two diving checks by defenseman Matt Bartkowski short-circuited chances.
The loss ended the Blues’ six-game TD Garden winning streak and handed St. Louis its first road loss to the Bruins since Jan. 30, 2001. It also ended a three-game St. Louis winning streak and gave the Blues (12-5-1) only their second loss in the last 13 games.
In winning their second straight, the Bruins (12-8-0) had only 17 shots on goal and were outshot 14-3 in the third period. But they shut down the torrid Blues line of center Jaden Schwartz with wingers Vladimir Tarasenko and Jori Lehtera. The trio had posted 33 points in the previous eight games and had nine shots on Rask, but came up empty.
Center Patrice Bergeron and defenseman Torey Krug scored for the Bruins, beating goaltender Brian Elliott.
Boston, which has had all kinds of injury problems on defense, lost Adam McQuaid early in the second period to an undisclosed injury.
Elliott mishandled the puck twice behind his own net in the first period. He almost got burned the first time. He did on the second. On a dump-in as the Bruins changed, he went behind the net when he should have let defenseman Ian Cole handle the puck. Elliott handcuffed Cole, who wheeled right out in front to Bergeron. With an open net, Bergeron scored his fourth goal in the last seven games.
Cole was in the wrong place at the wrong time again when Krug scored. Krug walked in from the left point, and Cole, tying up center Carl Soderberg in front, screened his goalie and the puck may have glanced off the defenseman and by a surprised Elliott.
The Bruins thought they had taken a 3-0 lead with nine seconds left in the second period when the puck went off winger Matt Fraser’s body in the crease and past Elliott. It was ruled no goal but it wasn’t clear why.
Red Wings 5, Blue Jackets 0
Former University of Maine star Jimmy Howard made 28 saves to record his first shutout of the season and Tomas Tatar and Tomas Jurco each collected a goal and an assist as Detroit snapped a four-game winless skid at Nationwide Arena.
Riley Sheahan scored for the second straight contest and ex-UMaine star Gustav Nyquist and Darren Helm also tallied for the Red Wings. Defenseman Brendan Smith notched two assists and Howard highlighted his 19th career blanking by stopping 12 shots in the first period.
Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 35 shots for the Blue Jackets, who saw their modest two-game winning streak come to an end and fell to 7-2-1 in their last 10 meetings with Detroit. Columbus went 0-for-3 on the power play after registering four tallies with the man-advantage in the previous two contests.
Detroit opened the scoring midway through the first period as defenseman Jonathan Ericsson’s slap shot caromed off Blue Jackets blue-liner Jordan Leopold and right to Tatar, who buried the loose puck for his sixth goal of the season. Columbus nearly forged a tie late in the session as Boone Jenner skated across the goalmouth and redirected the puck home with his right skate, but officials denied the tally due to the distinct kicking motion.
The Red Wings doubled the advantage 1:44 into the second as Johan Franzen’s wrist shot from the slot was denied by Bobrovsky, who was unable to stop Nyquist from the doorstep. Jurco added a power-play goal at 4:49 of the third before Sheahan tipped home Smith’s deft pass from in close just 72 seconds later.