The bright lights of the Stanley Cup Playoffs can often be too bright for any NHL’er, young or old. Move onto the Stanley Cup Final and those lights only get brighter on the game’s biggest stage.

But as the series have moved along, the lights have become brighter and the pressure has increased, rookie defensemen Connor Clifton hasn’t shown any signs of the playoffs being anything more than just another game of hockey.

With the Bruins trailing 2-0 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final Monday night at TD Garden, Clifton changed the momentum of the game with one single rush to the net.

1:16 after Vladimir Tarasenko’s second period goal gave the Blues a 2-0 lead, Clifton went hard to the net, put himself in the right position and chipped Sean Kuraly’s cross-ice feed past Blues’ goalie Jordan Binnington for the Bruins first goal of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final.

From there, the Bruins would go to score the next three goals en route to a 4-2 Game 1 victory.

“Well, it’s one of the reasons he’s here. Cause he can, he’s got good hockey IQ, he’s learned when to go, when to be conservative, when to pick the right spot without being risky, without putting us at a disadvantage. Kind of slides in there. All of a sudden he’s there,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said following Game 1.

"He’s got a little bit of that, they call it “Cliffy hockey.” He just plays. He plays on his instinct and right now his instincts are good to him and it’s working.”

Drafted by the then Phoenix Coyotes in the fifth round of the of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, Clifton spent four seasons at Quinnipiac University where he was a captain in his junior and senior years. After failing to reach a deal with the Coyotes following his senior season, Clifton became a free agent, signing with the Bruins in May of 2018.

When the Bruins sat down this past offseason and started to construct their roster, Clifton was not a part of the conversation. With injuries to John Moore early in the playoffs, and Kevan Miller unable to go at any point during the postseason, Clifton has been thrown into a role that no one expected himself to be in.

One where he's excelled.

At 5’11” and 175 pounds, Clifton is not your prototypical defenseman. In fact, earlier this postseason Cassidy admitted that when he first saw Clifton at development camp he thought he was a winger rather than a defenseman with how involved he was in the rush and the offensive game.

But since then, the Bruins coaching staff have been able to bottle that energy and desire to attack in the offensive zone and mold Clifton into more of a well-rounded defenseman.

“Well he’s certainly not afraid to get involved. We noticed that when we first saw him and it was almost a detriment at times. We saw him at a rookie camp in Buffalo, so he’s learned when to go, when to be a good support person on the rush, he’s done a great job for us since he has been here,” Cassidy added. “He has the ability to separate so he can skate and beat his guy up ice, he goes to good spots, that’s how he got his goal against Carolina, right in front as well. So good for him.”

As important as his second period goal was, what Clifton and his fellow defensemen were able to do from there was impressive. Clifton and company held the Blues to 12 combined shots in the final two periods, including just three in a second period that saw the Bruins shake off their rust and turn the tables on the Blues.

“Team defense. Obviously we took away time and space and that’s what we want to do especially against their top lines,” Clifton said about what worked so well for them in the final two periods.

Clifton finished the night with 13:13 of time on ice, a Corsi For percentage of 65.22% and was a part of a Bruins defense that held the Blues to just four high danger scoring chances and 15 scoring chances allowed overall.

“That’s the NHL today. If you get contributions from your backline, if you get contributions from your bottom 6 forwards, you’re going win a lot of hockey games and you’re going to have a chance to go far in the playoffs,” said Torey Krug.

“And that’s what we’ve had up to this point and that’s what we had tonight. And that’s why we won the game. It’s crucial.”

The Bruins have been winning games in different ways this postseason, playing “Cliffy hockey,” is just another one of those ways.

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