Behind the superhuman play of goaltender Tuukka Rask and his season high 43 saves, the Boston Bruins dodged what would normally be certain defeat in their Tuesday night visit to Madison Square Garden, downing the New York Rangers by a 2-1 final.

Returning back to Boston in search of their third straight victory and looking for their seventh victory in their last eight games overall, a visit from the St. Louis Blues, a team off to their best start in franchise history (14-3-3 through 20 games), left a depleted Boston squad with little (perhaps even less) room for error. But in Rask’s third game in the last four nights, they seemed simply inevitable.

Striking first behind Gregory Campbell’s first goal of the season, coming in the 22nd game of the year for the scrappy fourth line centermen and at the 18:20 mark of the first period, the joy of a rare goal against Jaroslav Halak, a man with two shutouts in nine games against the Black-and-Gold, was short lived for Campbell and company.

St. Louis answered just 31 seconds later with a slow, dribbling point-shot from Derek Roy that morphed the 26-year-old Rask into the ‘86 version of Billy Buckner, trickling through the Finnish netminder’s five-hole and into the back of the cage. “I didn’t even know I scored it,” Roy said after the game, giving him six goals in 21 games with St. Louis. “I just tried to pull it to my forehand and shoot it and get it towards the net cause I knew there were a couple of guys there, and it happened to go in.”

For Rask, it was a goal that was well -- embarrassing. No other way to put it, really. But rather than letting the late period blooper of a goal break his back, No. 40 and the Bruins responded with a strong second period that tested the heart of this tired B’s group. Outshot 11-8 in the frame, and down 2-1 after a David Backes tip good for the Blues captain’s ninth of the season, the Boston response came from the club’s resurgent from bottom six yet again. This time, from the third line.

Off some beautiful cycling in the St. Louis zone from Chris Kelly and Reilly Smith, a dish from Smith found the 6-foot-3 Carl Soderberg in the slot, where the former Blues draft pick (second round in ‘04) sniped home his third goal of the season just 2:37 after Backes’ goal.

1-1 after one? 2-2 after two. 3-3 after three. Not quite, but almost.

In a third period loaded with chances and power-play opportunities for both clubs, some late period looks from the Bruins’ second line couldn’t seal the deal on two points, sending this one to overtime.

And when five minutes of overtime couldn’t solve anything, it was on to the shootout.

Boston center Patrice Bergeron opened things up in the top of the first, with a (borderline signature at this point) five-hole shootout marker on Halak, while a bottom of the second goal from Alexander Steen and subsequent miss from the Bruins’ Jarome Iginla in round three put the St. Louis Blues in position to steal one in enemy territory. Initially stopping Chris Stewart in the bottom of the third, and with Kelly (more on that in a bit) stopped in the top of the fourth, Bruin-killer Derek Roy had the chance to send St. Louis back home happy. And he did.

Beating a frustrated Rask to give the Blues the extra point, giving them 33 points on the year, the Bruins’ two-game win streak was put to an end on a skills competition, something that clearly bothered the 26-year-old ace in Boston’s crease.

“Gas it,” Rask said after the game when asked about the shootout deciding contests. “Midseason. Take it away, I don’t [expletive] want it.”

Well hey, that’s an opinion.

Despite Rask’s (hashtag) hot sports take on the shootout, it’s hard to deny the entertainment factor of tonight’s game between these two cross-conference foes. It honestly felt like this was hockey’s version of the Twilight Zone, with the Bruins and Blues being copies of one another just donning different jerseys, with the Garden playing the role of Rod Serling’s alternate universe.

“I think we were expecting the same kind of game that we try to play — hard to play against, solid defensively, and deep offensively with four lines. And that’s what we got,” Bergeron, who finished with three shots in 19:03 of time on ice, said after the loss, just the club’s second in their last eight games. “We were expecting that, a physical game and a team that’s hard to play against. I thought we played that same kind of game. It was pretty even, I thought. They had some chances, we had some chances, and we played pretty solid. Unfortunately we didn’t get the extra point.”

It was hard-hitting, tight-checking, and heavy on the three-zone style of play.

It was playoff hockey simplified into a 65-minute affair and four-round shootout.

It was pretty awesome, really, and simply had to end at some point.

The shootout, for better or worse, provided that ending.

Kelly gets call in the shootout, and everyone’s confused -- including me

There’s a strong possibility that third line center Chris Kelly scores in the top of the fourth round of tonight’s shootout if he doesn’t lose his handle of the puck. Obviously, you can say that about any player that loses the puck in a shootout attempt, but it’s true. It’s also a reason why you wouldn’t necessarily want Kelly, a player with three goals in 22 games this year, shooting fourth in the shootout for your club. At least if you ask me.

I think that Kelly’s a great complementary piece for this Bruins squad. He’s a strong leader, plays the game the right way, and while his 20-goal season two years ago showed off his offensive upside, he’s simply not a player that’s meant for the shootout. He’s even admitted that himself. He joked with me in Oct. about how he never shot in Ottawa because ‘they had other players that were much better’ and how ‘They sent the trainers out before me’ when asked about a marathon shootout during the preseason. So, why exactly was No. 23 thrown out there by Claude Julien? I’m clueless.

Sometimes coaches throw a complete change-up out there in hopes of finding lightning in a bottle.

There’s nothing wrong with that… most of the time. But the Bruins needed a shootout goal there. They needed to keep a legitimate pace with the Blues, and in the fourth round, Kelly is not an equal matchup to any Blue skater Ken Hitchcock was going to send out there.

And with Kelly at less than 100 percent as Julien noted in his postgame press conference, the move seemed and still seems even more baffling.

In the orders of Jean-Paul from Seinfeld: “Why separate knob [Kelly]? Why separate knob [Kelly]?!”

Given the game put forth from Carl Soderberg throughout both regulation and overtime, the towering Swede with the soft hands seemed like the obvious pick. Or maybe even Reilly Smith, a forward that’s undoubtedly coming into his own in the offensive zone. Or even Torey Krug. Anybody but a less-than-100-percent Kelly, really.

In this case, Julien threw a changeup when his fastball and curve was ready to go.

The result? Well, you saw.

But seriously, please stop complaining about the shootout

The shootout has been around since 2005. It’s almost 2014.

Please, for the love of all things Bobby Orr, stop complaining about the shootout.

The NHL is working on a way to lessen the impact of a shootout, which is great, but complaining about its impact on the game or saying that it’s ruining the ‘integrity’ of the game is complete trash.

I, like most of you, remember when ties existed, and those were the absolute worst. Seriously. One of my first games was a tie. As if being forced to watch the late-90s Bruins wasn’t bad enough, I had to go to school the next day and tell all my friends about what an awesome tie I witnessed. Nobody gave a damn. It’s not like I could brag about a sick Jozef Stumpel shootout goal that won the game, or say, “Man, that Darren Van Impe is a real shootout specialist.”

Ties were the worst. And while the shootout isn’t the best, it’s a whole lot better than the tie.

Please realize this.

Miller quietly eases into B’s blue-line mix in NHL debut

On a Boston blue-line ravaged by the loss of stay-at-home defenders Dennis Seidenberg and Adam McQuaid, both suffering from lower-body injuries, the 6-foot-2 Kevan Miller took to the Garden for the first time as an NHLer in tonight’s shootout loss.

The early verdict? He’s as steady as advertised. Recalled from Providence because of his own-zone prowess, the California native finished tonight’s game with a plus-1 rating, two hits, and two blocked shots in 17:42 of ice-time, feeling his way through the B’s defensive rotation throughout the night.

Paired with Matt Bartkowski for much of the night, the switch to NHL ice for the 26-year-old former Vermont Catamount looked easy enough, really.

“Right away there was a pause in the beginning there, and it took me a little bit to get going, but I felt pretty comfortable through all three periods,” Miller, who entered tonight’s game with a goal and three points in 12 AHL contests this year, said. “Tonight, I think pucks were bouncing a little bit my way. Like I said, I’m not here to score too many goals, just get the puck down deep, do my job, when I can provide some offense, do that as well.”

As is the case with every rookie that comes into the Bruins’ system, Julien didn’t want Miller, a physical defensemen by nature, to stray from what got him to this point in the first place.

“Miller played extremely well. He’s a defensive defenseman who makes good strong plays; he did that tonight,” said Julien, adding, “He was strong, I really liked his game. I thought he was a poised player out there for his first real NHL game.”

Up next

The Bruins will host the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. It will be the second matchup between the two in less than a week, with the Bruins downing the 'Canes by a 4-1 final on Monday night, and second of three between the two foes in 2013-14. Carolina lost their Thursday night meeting with the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at the Joe.

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