In their 20th game of the 2014-15 season, the shorthanded Bruins – this time without Brad Marchand (undisclosed injury) – were looking for a statement victory. Without Zdeno Chara, they had failed in delivering that important victory against the likes of the Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs over the last few weeks.

Tuesday night’s game against the St. Louis Blues marked the first of a tough four-game stretch for the Black and Gold that includes a road matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday and home contests versus the hated Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins. Their game in Ohio’s capital begins another three-game in four-night stretch.

Certainly, it was crucial for the Bruins to get off to a good start in this slate with a red-hot Blues team, who came into the TD Garden having won 10 of their last 11 contests.

But when it mattered the most, Tuukka Rask was once again up to the task. The Finnish netminder stopped all 33 Blues’ shots on goal en route to his first shutout of the season and a 2-0 victory in front of the 225th sellout of 17,565 on Causeway Street.

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“It was one of those days where the puck just didn’t go in,” Rask said about the 24th shutout of his career.

A goaltender is only as good as his defense in front of him. The Blues outshot the Bruins 33-17, yet the shorthanded B’s defense – without Adam McQuaid who left the game in the second period – was up to the task in stopping a St. Louis team that has four deep lines.

From a more confident Matt Bartkowski, to Joe Morrow’s impressive slate, to Torey Krug sparking the Bruins transition game, to Dougie Hamilton and Dennis Seidenberg, each Bruins blue-liner combined for a solid effort in a big early season contest.

“As for as the team goes, whenever we play defense like that and keep them on the outside for the most part, I think it makes my job easier,” Rask said about the defense in front of him. “It doesn’t matter if you’re playing the best team in the league or not. If you’re giving chances in the slot, chances are they’re going to score. Today, we pretty well eliminated that.

Oddly enough, the player who came the closest to scoring on Rask in the third period was Hamilton. A rebound attempt by TJ Oshie hit Hamilton near the goal line, but the puck redirected to Rask who covered up for the faceoff.

The Blues, however, were used to that all night. Even when they had the net pulled in the last three minutes, they couldn’t find a way to shrink the two-goal deficit.

“Its just one of those days where the puck just doesn’t want to go in,” Rask said. “There was one, you know, Dougie almost scored on his own net, managed to save that. Some other night that’s a goal and I’m not too happy about it.”

Hamilton, Tuukka and the rest of the Bruins avoided a near disaster in the third period. Aside from that, and the Blues’ surge at the start of the second period, Rask and the rest of the B’s kept St. Louis at bay.

Dougie will have to make up for this with Rask at some point after his near adventure, but Tuukka also has to thank guys like Bartkowski, who stopped two of the Blues’ quality scoring chances including a near breakaway opportunity from Vladimir Taresenko.

On Boston.com: Confidence remains key for Matt Bartkowski

“He played a great game today, Rask said about Bartkowski. “He was in there battling hard and making good plays, strong passes and then those couple of plays—it was kind of a desperate play, he dove and slapped the puck away and that means he’s on his game. The past couple games he’s been great for us.

“Tuukka was huge,” said Bartkowski, who tallied one assist in 20:52 of ice time. “When we had a few breakdowns, he was there to cover up for us, but I thought whenever we did have those breakdowns, we didn’t panic like in previous games and make things worse. We kind of just handled it and got the puck out.”

A big performance from a big time goaltender is why Tuukka Rask gets paid the big bucks.