Every time the St. Louis Blues faced adversity in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night, their response was meek. When they confronted problems on Monday in Game 4, it was a 180-degree turnaround. Instead of one mistake becoming multiple spirit-sapping errors, they kept playing their game, rolling out four lines and wearing down the Boston Bruins one shift at a time. The payoff came in the last 10 minutes. Ryan O'Reilly potted the tiebreaking goal at 10:38 of the third period, and Brayden Schenn tacked on an empty-netter in a 4-2 win at Enterprise Center, evening the series at two games each. Game 5 is Thursday night in Boston, with the winner getting a chance to parade the Cup around the ice Sunday night in Game 6 at St. Louis. "Things don't seem to faze us," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. That could have been called into question in the final six minutes of the second period, when St. Louis completely bungled a power-play chance with a 2-1 lead. Twenty-six seconds into the man advantage, the Blues were pulling the puck from their net. Patrice Bergeron's wrister was stopped by Jordan Binnington, but the St. Louis rookie goalie left a juicy rebound for Brandon Carlo. The Boston defenseman made no mistake, slotting a wrister off the tip of Binnington's glove at 14:19 for his first playoff goal. While the crowd of 18,805 was mostly apprehensive in the second intermission, St. Louis interim coach Craig Berube noticed something else. "I thought that was one of our best periods in some time," he said. The Blues justified his thought process by dominating the third period, eventually overrunning a Bruins defense that played without Zdeno Chara for most of the last two periods. The Boston captain was bloodied when a Schenn shot struck him in the face, and doctors told coach Bruce Cassidy that Chara was done for the game's remainder during the second intermission. "We were advised not to play him," Cassidy said. "He was very uncomfortable. He's going to need stitches and dental work." Minus Chara, Boston played a defenseman short, which proved costly. Case in point: the go-ahead tally, from O'Reilly, his second of the night. Off a quick transition, Pietrangelo fired a shot from the right wing that handcuffed Rask to the point that he couldn't control the rebound. It bounced into the slot, where O'Reilly whacked it into the net for his second goal of the game. "I did what I could to get to the back side," O'Reilly said, "and I got a great bounce." O'Reilly produced his first goal just 43 seconds into the game, injecting life into a barn that seemed a bit down after sitting through the Bruins' 7-2 blowout win in Game 3. He beat Danton Heinen to a loose puck behind the net and stuffed a wraparound just inside the right post. Charlie Coyle equalized for Boston at 13:14 of the first when Binnington couldn't control the rebound of Chara's shot from the left circle. Vladimir Tarasenko restored a one-goal lead for St. Louis at 15:30 of the opening period when he collected the rebound of Pietrangelo's shot and scored his 11th goal of the playoffs. "We shot the puck way more in this game," Tarasenko said. "We found chances to go to the net. We created traffic and scored some greasy goals." The Blues owned a 38-23 advantage in shots on net and a 64-41 margin in total attempts. Rask stopped 34 of 37 shots. Binnington made 21 saves on 23 shots Monday after getting pulled from Game 3 when he allowed five goals on 19 shots. — Reuters
