For the first time in franchise history, the St. Louis Blues have won a Stanley Cup Final game.

The Blues bounced back from a thoroughly disappointing Game 1 loss to win Game 2 in an overtime thriller, earning a split in Boston before the series heads to St. Louis. The Blues looked like the better team for most of the night but were especially dominant in overtime before Carl Gunnarsson put home the winner from the point less than four minutes into the extra frame. The 3-2 Blues victory snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Bruins.

Before the series shifts to St. Louis for Game 3 on Saturday night, let's get into some takeaways from Game 2.

Seesaw first period

As expected, Game 2 brought a quicker start than the series opener. Both teams seemed to have better legs without that long layoff from the conference finals, though neither were still particularly crisp. 

The Bruins were able to strike first after getting an early power play courtesy of a Sammy Blais penalty for goaltender interference. Jake DeBrusk connected with a wide-open Charlie Coyle in the slot and Coyle was able to finish through Jordan Binnington's five-hole.

The Blues answered with a goal from Robert Bortuzzo about five minutes later when his shot deflected off the leg of a Bruins defenseman in front of Tuukka Rask. The puck had eyes and found its way over Rask's shoulder into the roof of the net for the equalizer.

However, Boston showed some resilience and answered the answer shortly after. It was the fourth line for the Bruins coming up with production once again, with Joakim Nordstrom putting a goal past Binnington following a messy sequence and a Blues defensive breakdown.

David Perron had the costly turnover that allowed the Bruins to keep the puck in the zone, but the Blues also allowed Nordstrom to roam free in the middle of the slot.

It wasn't only the Blues who suffered from some ugly defensive sequences, though. A bad read from Brad Marchand in the neutral zone allowed the Blues to find an odd-man rush with their top line on the ice against the Bruins' top defensive pair. Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko took on Zdeno Chara and, ultimately, Tarasenko made a great effort to stick with the play and tie it at 2. 

By the way, that's Tarasenko's fourth consecutive game with a goal and his eighth in a row with at least one point.

Improvements and urgency from Blues

After a somewhat sketchy opening first period, the Blues really tightened up their game in all three zones -- the first time we've seen them play up to their abilities in this series so far. They were much stronger on the forecheck and better at closing gaps to limiting time and space for the Bruins' attack, and it seemed like Boston had a lot of trouble finding smooth breakouts and zone entries during the final 40-plus minutes of the game.

On the attack, the Blues moved the puck better and were able to set up in the O-zone to cycle and find sustained pressure. That's how they get most of their offensive opportunities -- setting up shop, cycling the puck throughout the zone, working low-to-high and getting lots of traffic in front. They got almost nothing in the way of sustained offensive pressure in Game 1 but had better movement on Wednesday and put the squeeze on the Bruins.

This is more like the Blues that we can expect moving forward in this series. They're a much stronger team than they showed in the opener and they showed a lot more urgency Wednesday night. Heading back home with some confidence in their game, this should continue to be a tight series.

Bruins lose a defenseman

The Bruins had to work with five defensemen for most of the night after Matt Grzelcyk was injured at the end of the first period. Grzelcyk took a hit from behind from Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist and his head bounced off the glass, signaling he might have suffered a head injury. Sundqvist received a two-minute minor for the hit.

Grzelcyk was missing from the bench at the start of the second period and didn't return to the game,  forcing the Bruins to play down a man for the rest of the contest. With the game going to overtime -- and the Bruins getting subsequently dominated -- it's fair to say that hurt them quite a bit.

After the game, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said Grzelcyk was transported to a nearby hospital for testing during the game but that there wasn't an update on his status just yet. Doesn't sound great, though.

Extra palpitations

For the first time since 2016, we got an overtime in a Stanley Cup Final game. It didn't last long and it seemed pretty clear who was going to come out on top nearly the entire time (the Blues had a 4-0 advantage in scoring chances) but it was free hockey nonetheless. 

Carl Gunnarsson closed it out with a laser from the point. The Blues did a great job screening Rask on the play.

Bruins got almost nothing from their top six

Man, did Boston's top stars look rough during this game. We already mentioned the improved play of the Blues' defense to help suffocate Boston's attack, but the Bruins' top stars weren't merely quiet -- some of them looked actively bad. 

Brad Marchand had a particularly rough game on both ends of the ice. Not only did he misread the play in the neutral zone on the sequence that led to the Tarasenko goal, but he dogged it on the backcheck as well. He just looked sloppy and off all night long. 

Cassidy attempted to mix up the lines but nothing really worked and the Blues refused to take their foot off the gas when it came to the defensive pressure. When the Bruins' top line really gets going, they're almost impossible to match, but we haven't really seen them take over much through the first two games. They're definitely going to need more from their top unit (and top six in general) if they're going to make life difficult on St. Louis and loosen up the Blues' solid back end. 

Game 2 updates

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