BOSTON — The St. Louis Blues, struggling away from home, snapped a three-game road losing streak, twice coming from behind to defeat the Boston Bruins 4-2 on Tuesday night.
The Blues, just 2-5-1 on the road (8-1-2 at home) coming in, came back from 1-0 and 2-1 as Robert Bortuzzo and Paul Stastny scored second-period goals 2:12 apart to grab the lead. The team then played a strong third period in front of Jake Allen to win for the eighth time in their last nine visits to TD Garden.
Jori Lehtera, who scored the Blues’ first goal, scored into an empty net with 1:16 left to salt the game away for St. Louis — his second and third goals of the season.
The St. Louis’ win spoiled a special night for Boston’s David Backes, who played 10 years with the Blues and was their captain when he signed with the Bruins as a free agent. Backes scored the game’s first goal, only his second goal since scoring twice in the team’s opener.
He gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead on a power play 7:44 into the game. Then, after Lehtera tied it 3:23 into the second, Dominic Moore scored a shorthanded goal to give Boston the 2-1 lead 8:59 into the period.
But the Bruins, playing without injured captain/defenseman Zdeno Chara, who left early in the second period with an undisclosed injury, were sloppy in their own end, leaving goaltender Tuukka Rask alone too often as he suffered only his third loss in 14 starts.
Allen, 9-3 on the season, won his fourth straight start, making 39 saves. He is 3-1 lifetime against Boston.
Rask made 24 saves for the Bruins, who fell to just 4-4-0 at home, where they had won three straight after a 1-3 start.
Defenseman Colton Parayko had two assists for St. Louis.
Torey Krug took the shot that was rebounded by Backes to open the scoring. Krug picked up his 100th assist and David Krejci, who had the other assist, notched his 484th career point, tying him with Don Marcotte for 15th on the Bruins’ all-time list.
The goal also meant Backes has scored on every team in the NHL in his 11-year NHL career.
The Blues equalized when Parayko fired from the right point and Lehtera tipped it home for his second goal of the season. Rask and the Bruins thought there was goaltender interference and the Bruins challenged, but replays didn’t show any contact and the goal stood.
Krejci was off for tripping when Moore broke in on a partial breakaway and fired a shot past Allen at 8:59.
But the Blues came back again with a pair of rebound goals as Bortuzzo scored his first goal of the season at 13:59 and Stastny recorded his fifth of the year but first in nine games at 16:11.
NOTES: Blues LW Alexander Steen didn’t make the trip and missed his third straight game with an upper body injury. … RW David Pastrnak, Boston’s leading goal scorer with 10, also missed his third in a row with an upper body injury. … Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, asked about facing former Blues captain David Backes, said: “I think it might be different for the players. For us coaches, after the first shift is over, he’s another player on the team.” … Coming into the game, 35 of the last 38 goals scored in the last eight meetings were at even strength with the Blues 1 for 20 and the Bruins 2 for 19 on the power play. … The Blues are at Washington on Wednesday night, while the Bruins are at Ottawa and come back to host the Calgary Flames on Friday night.
Hurricanes 2, Maple Leafs 1
TORONTO — Viktor Stalberg scored a shorthanded goal in the second period to break a tie and the Carolina Hurricanes went on to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 on Tuesday night to extend their winning streak to five games.
Jeff Skinner also scored for the Hurricanes (8-6-4), who won the first four games of their streak at home.
Jake Gardiner scored for the Maple Leafs (8-8-3), who have lost two in a row.
Cam Ward stopped 25 shots in the Hurricanes goal.
Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen made 27 stops in his 10th straight start.
The Maple Leafs went on the power play at 14:21 of the third period after Jay McClement was given a tripping penalty. The Hurricanes were able to kill off the penalty.
Toronto seldom threatened after that.
Gardiner’s slap shot from the left point found its way through a maze of players for his fourth goal of the season that gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 5:55 of the first period.
The Maple Leafs scored the first goal in each of their past four home games.
The Hurricanes tied the game on a power-play goal by Skinner at 17:21 of the first period with Toronto defenseman Connor Carrick serving a holding penalty. Skinner’s seventh goal of the season came after a jamming session around the Maple Leafs’ net. Derek Ryan and Lee Stempniak picked assists.
The Hurricanes took a 2-1 lead at 14:06 of the second period on a short-handed goal by Stalberg on a breakaway while killing a hooking penalty to Jay McClement. Elias Lindholm earned the assist on Stalberg’s third goal of the season.