Boston rallies in Game 1

Boston

Sean Kuraly scored to break a third-period tie and assisted on another goal to help the Boston Bruins rally from a two-goal deficit and beat the St. Louis Blues 4-2 on Monday night in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Tuukka Rask stopped 18 shots for Boston, which fell behind 2-0 on goals from Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko. But the Bruins outshot the Blues 18-3 in the second period — and 38-20 in the game — to take the opener in the best-of-seven series.

Brad Marchand added an empty netter to clinch it.

Forty-nine years after Bobby Orr flew through the air following his Cup-clinching goal against St. Louis in the 1970 final, Boston defensemen Connor Clifton and Charlie McAvoy scored in the second period to tie it.

Jordan Binnington made 34 saves for the Blues, who haven't been back to the final since then. Game 2 is Wednesday night.

It had been 17,914 days since the Blues' last appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, when they lost to Orr's Bruins in four games.

They ran into a familiar problem: The Boston defense.

After taking advantage of Boston's slow start — the Bruins hadn't played since sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference final on May 16 — St. Louis jumped to a 2-0 lead.

Schenn made it 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a third-chance shot. In the first minute of the second, David Pastrnak got sloppy behind the Bruins' net and Schenn was there again, this time to pass it to Tarasenko in the slot to make it 2-0.

But just 76 seconds later, Clifton tipped in a pass from Kuraly to cut the deficit to one goal. And in the middle of the second, on the Bruins' fourth power play of the game, McAvoy came right up the middle and wristed it past Binnington's glove to tie it.

It was still tied five minutes into the third when Noel...