Bruins stay focused in Game 3, take lead in Cup Final

ST. LOUIS --The Boston Bruins maintained composure and discipline in their 7-2 win against the St. Louis Blues in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

After taking a 4-0 lead 41 seconds into the second period, the Bruins refused to engage in any rough play and kept their focus throughout. Boston took the lead in the best-of-7 series with Game 4 here on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS).
"They tried to back us down physically for sure," Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo said. "You could see the stuff a little bit more so after the whistles, after we got up a couple of goals. But we did a great job of not buying into that kind of behavior and whatnot after the whistles and just focusing on our game in between the whistles.
"It starts with our leadership telling us to kind of play that way and stay composed and as long as we listen to them, I think we're good."
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Bruins forward David Backes was involved in numerous staredowns, including an extended one with Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson in the second period. But it ended without any physicality.
During the first television timeout of the second and the Bruins ahead 4-0, Blues goalie Jordan Binnington deliberately brushed his Boston counterpart, Tuukka Rask, as the goalies skated to their respective benches.
"It was a 4-0 game," said Binnington, who allowed five goals on 19 shots and was pulled when Bruins defenseman Torey Krug made it 5-1 at 12:12 of the second. "I wasn't happy. It's how I reacted. It's a long series, right? It's something I did and we're moving on."

The Blues tried to unnerve Rask on other occasions too.
St. Louis forward David Perron was face-to-face with Rask after a whistle near the net in the second period and also took a roughing penalty against Rask 54 seconds into the third.
"He was just saying I was diving," Rask said. "I was trying to get out of there."
Rask, who made 27 saves, said there was nothing unusual about how the Blues tried to rattle the Bruins.
"It wasn't too bad," Rask said. "I think Perron a couple of times, he was in tight there in the scrums, but nothing out of the ordinary."

The attempts did not help the Blues, who gave up four power play goals on four shots in four times shorthanded.
"I thought we started the way we wanted to," St. Louis forward Ryan O'Reilly said. "I thought we had good jump and we were composed, but once we had a couple breakdowns, that's when we started to fall apart. Then we got into penalty trouble. We got away from our game. We have to stay out of the box and find a way to wear them down. We stepped away from it too much and it gave them too much momentum."
Bruins forward Brad Marchand had no issue with the Blues' tactics, calling it "part of the game."
"They came hard," said Marchand, who had one assist. "They were starting to go after [Rask] a little bit and create some more scrums. It's what they do. They have a lot of big, physical guys and they feed off that."