Blues snap Bruins' 8-game home winning streak 4-0

BOSTON -- Fred Brathwaite shut down the league's most potent offense -- and it might have helped him save his job.

Brathwaite made 33 saves and Keith Tkachuk and Scott Mellanby each had a goal and an assist as the St. Louis Blues snapped the Boston Bruins' eight-game home winning streak with a 4-0 victory on Tuesday night.

"Tonight was just a good night for me," said Brathwaite, who is in danger of being sent to the minors with starting goaltender Brent Johnson on the verge returning from an injury.

"But right now I can't do anything about the situation. All I can do is help the team win. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I'm just trying to make the decision harder for them."

The Bruins, who entered the game with the best record in the league, lost for the first time at the FleetCenter since a 4-1 setback to Anaheim on Oct. 31. Boston also had its five-game winning streak snapped. St. Louis improved to 7-3-1 on the road and 6-0-0-1 against Eastern Conference teams.

"We give them full credit," Boston captain Joe Thornton said. "They played a great game and didn't let us in their zone. I think our intensity was a little low, but we'll just have to get back on another winning streak."

The Blues got the only goal of the first period when Petr Cajanek's shot from outside the right circle was deflected off the far post by Eric Boguniecki and trickled past Boston goaltender Steve Shields.

The Blues added a pair of goals in the second period to break the game open. Mellanby's seventh of the season on a point-blank shot midway through the period made it 2-0 and Doug Weight's backhander less than four minutes later gave the Blues a three-goal advantage. Tkachuk scored his sixth goal of the season with 4:33 remaining in the game.

Brathwaite did the rest, recording his second shutout of the season and 15th of his career against the most potent offense in the NHL.

"We like tough decisions," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "We've got some things to think about with our goaltending, but I like how Fred responded. It was a real good effort."

The two teams entered the game tops in the league in scoring.