BOSTON — There’s no law that says a team without its top scorer has to fail.
With enough goaltending and special teams, it’s possible.
The Bruins got enough of both on Tuesday night at TD Garden to bounce back from their first loss in regulation since mid-December and beat the Blues, 3-1 Tuukka Rask made 32 saves to improve to 17-0-2 since his last loss in regulation on Nov. 26, and Patrice Bergeron scored a critical power play goal in the third period that proved to be the winner.
The Bruins are now 2-1-0 without scoring leader Brad Marchand, who served the third game of a five-game NHL suspension. They remained three points ahead of the third-place Maple Leafs, who visit the Garden on Saturday, in the Atlantic Division standings.
The B’s, who took a 3-2 decision out of Ottawa in the first game of Marchand’s suspension, were held without a goal for more than 59 minutes in Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Ducks, which snapped an 18-game points streak (14-0-4). Goals were hard to come by again against the Blues, despite a season-high 46 shots.
Also without fourth-line winger Noel Acciari and Anders Bjork, who had been recalled from AHL Providence to cover for the absences of Marchand and Acciari, the B’s had only one line intact on Tuesday -- and that line was the only one to beat Jake Allen over the first 40 minutes.
David Krejci made it 1-0 at 12:32 of the second period, surviving a coach’s challenge (goalie interference) to score his ninth of the season. Krejci started the play by picking off a pass at center ice and setting up possession in Blues territory, which led to a wrister for rookie linemate Jake DeBrusk from the left circle. The shot went off Allen’s left pad and floated into the crease, where DeBrusk and Spooner were unable to bash it over the goal line, but Krejci scored on a put-back.
Rask made his biggest save of the night inside the first two minutes of the second period. After getting in front of Brayden Schenn’s deflection in the slot, he flashed out his catching glove to snag Jaden Schwartz’s backhander as it headed for an near-empty net.
That save kept it at 1-0; Bergeron’s goal on the Bruins’ only power-play of the game doubled the lead. His 21st of the season, a snap from the right circle to finish a Spooner-David Pastrnak setup, came with 10:55 left in regulation.
From there, the Bruins got an important penalty kill when captain Zdeno Chara was sent off for slashing with 5:40 to go. They weren’t able to survive the 6-on-5 situation created when the Blues pulled Allen (Schwartz spoiled Rask’s bid for his fourth shutout 1:32 to go), but former Blues captain David Backes -- after icing the puck on an earlier attempt -- scored a last-second empty-netter to seal it.