For the 2010 to 2011 season, justSports has been given a press pass to attend Boston Bruins home games. We will cover these games periodically throughout the year. With his team down 2-1 in a shootout Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues, Boston Bruins right wing Michael Ryder needed to score to keep the team's chances for a win alive. But Ryder's shot went off the goal post, and the Bruins lost the game 2-1 to fall to 7-4 on the season.

The Bruins forced the shootout by scoring with 7 minutes left to tie the game at 1. Center Gregory Campbell scored his first goal of the year off assists from Ryder and fellow center Brad Marchand to break Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak's streak of more than 150 straight minutes without allowing a goal.

The goal came after Blues center Vladimir Sobotka gave St. Louis a lead late in the first period. It was the first goal of the season for Sobotka, a former Bruin who was traded to the Blues in the offseason. Blues coach Davis Payne, himself a former Bruin, admitted he tried to get Sobotka more involved in the game in part because the center was facing his former team. "There's always a little extra jump when a guy's playing against his old team," Payne told reporters. "He had it going early, and we want to ride a hot hand whenever we can."

Another former Bruin, Blues center Brad Boyes, also burned his former team, scoring the game-winning shootout goal. Blues center TJ Oshie and Bruins center Tyler Seguin also scored in the shootout period.

Ryder's shootout miss was indicative of the missed opportunities the Bruins had all night. Center Patrice Bergeron's shootout shot also hit the post, and Boston right wing Nathan Horton, who leads the team with six goals this season, had two near-misses. "I tried to get more shots," Horton said after the game. "I think I had more opportunities and our line had more opportunities, so definitely it would have been nice for one of those to go in.''

Horton's first opportunity came just over 4 minutes into the game when his shot from the right side hit the far post and landed just in front of the goal line. Halak quickly covered up the puck before it could cross the line. Even though the play caused the red light signaling a goal to light up, the referees ruled that there was no goal and upheld the call on a replay review.

In the second period, Horton's shot went off the crossbar and landed right on the goal line. The red light turned on, but referees again ruled that the puck did not completely cross the line, meaning that it was not a goal. Once again, replay upheld the call. "We hit the post four times; you'd expect it to be your friend once, but it wasn't the case [Saturday]," left wing Milan Lucic told reporters after the game.

The loss drops Bruins goalkeeper Tuukka Rask to 0-4 on the season after he led the league with a 1.97 goals against average and a .931 save percentage last season. "An unlucky start for him thus far," Lucic told the AP, "but he was great tonight and kept us in the game."

Boston may also have suffered a bigger loss during the game as center David Krejci, who leads the team with eight assists this season, suffered a concussion in the overtime period when his head slammed into the wall on a check by Blues center TJ Oshie. The Bruins medical staff announced on Sunday that he will be out for at least a week, if not longer.

The loss was the first time the Bruins had back-to-back losses on the season, as the Washington Capitals beat them 5-3 last Friday night. Last Wednesday, the Bruins defeated the Buffalo Sabres 5-2 for their seventh win of the season.

The Bruins travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins tomorrow night at 7 p.m.