The Bruins came out with a little extra espresso in their system, outshooting and outhitting the Blues through the first 20 minutes that ended with 2-0 Black and Gold advantage.
It helped that Joonas Korpisalo was sharp early, stopping all 10 shots that came his way, including a big tester from Pius Suter, who drilled one from between the circles in the opening moments.
Boston had the best early chance when Fraser Minten collected a board feed and broke in alone on Binnington, who was able to steer Minten’s backhander aside.
Boston struck first when red-hot Alex Steeves popped in his sixth at 6:30.
Jonathan Aspirot pinched in and slid the puck to Geekie, who zipped it back across the slot where Steeves one-timed it past Binnington.
It was the fifth goal in six games for Steeves, who is keeping a spot on the top line warm until David Pastrnak can return.
Steeves earned a big helper as the Bruins doubled their lead.
The Notre Dame product forced a Blues turnover with a hard forecheck and the puck squirted to Elias Lindholm in the corner. The center wasted no time throwing it out front where Geekie went top shelf over Binnington’s glove for his 21st of the season.
The Blues earned the only power play of the first (Tanner Jeannot for holding), but the Bruins earned the only scoring chance of the two minutes and again it was Steeves in the middle of it.
The hustling forward picked off a lazy Justin Faulk relay in the St. Louis end and nearly tucked his second of the night by Binnington.
The Blues owned the first two minutes of the second — the Bruins owned the final 18.
Pavel Buchnevich snapped one high over Korpisalo’s blocker 1:59 in to cut the Boston lead to 2-1.
The Bruins took over from there, scoring three straight (Arvidsson and Zacha twice) to seize a 5-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Arvidsson hit the 400-point milestone when he unleashed a missile over Binnington’s glove and just under the crossbar off a rebound of a Mason Lohrei slapper.
Zacha scored his first when he collected an Arvidsson pass up the right side, weaved through defenders, and ripped a wrister high over Binnington’s glove.
Arvidsson’s primary was the 200th assist of his career.
Zacha struck again with a power-play strike with just 0.1 seconds left in the period. Lindholm threw one off Binnington’s pads and the rebound fell to Zacha, who popped it in the vacated left side for the 5-1 lead.
Bruins jump out to early lead, cruise past Blues
