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Bruins hang rare home regulation defeat on Blues

Feb 23, 2012 - 5:54 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Brad Marchand scored twice as Boston doubled up St. Louis, 4-2, at Scottrade Center.

Chris Kelly and Milan Lucic each posted a goal and one assist for the Bruins, who had lost three of four coming in.

Tim Thomas stopped 30-of-32 shots for the win as Boston maintained its slim two-point lead in the Northeast Division. Ottawa topped Washington earlier Wednesday.

Chris Stewart and Ryan Reaves tallied for the Blues, who have dropped two in a row. St. Louis suffered its first home regulation setback since a 5-2 loss to Chicago on December 3.

"We need to find a way to get points," Blues forward David Backes said. "We haven't had this streak of losses very often this year and the quicker we turn it around, the better off we are going to be."

Brian Elliott was shelled for four goals on only 19 shots in defeat.

Marchand sailed away up the middle and beat Elliott on the backhand for a key insurance goal which gave Boston a 4-2 advantage with 9:14 played in the third period. Tyler Seguin's lead pass set up the strike.

Marchand's knuckling wrister put the Bruins on the board less than three minutes into the contest, and Lucic made it 2-0 just under four minutes later by tipping a Joe Corvo floater.

Stewart slapped home a rebound from the left side at 7:17, then B.J. Crombeen outwaited Thomas and fired the right side where Reaves chopped it out of mid- air and over the goal line with 7:45 to play.

Kelly scored with 40 seconds left to send Boston up 3-2 at intermission, redirecting a Lucic feed home from the slot.

In a scoreless second period, Thomas made 14 saves and Elliott four stops. Early in the stanza, Johnny Boychuk appeared to have given the Bruins a two- goal edge, but a review determined his shot hit the left post and crossbar before caroming back into play.

"Some scoring early in the game I think was helpful to our overall team confidence," said Thomas. "They may have had the puck in our zone in the second period, but I think we did a pretty good job of playing our type of game overall and not letting things get too out of control."

Game Notes

Marchand notched his first multi-goal effort since tallying three times in an 8-0 win over Florida on December 23...St. Louis hadn't given up as many as four goals in any game since a 6-4 win over Columbus on December 18, a span of 27 contests...Elliott tied a season low for saves in a loss, having stopped 15 Flames chances in a 3-1 loss on October 28 at Calgary.