Bruins blow lead, surge back to topple Penguins

It wasn’t the Bruins best performance.

In fact, Monday night included arguably the worst period of Bruins hockey on the young season.

In the end, though, even with a three-goal lead blown, even with allowing 44 shots and seemingly endless breakaways, the Bruins earned two points and their sixth straight win with a 6-4 victory over the Penguins.

They can thank Brad Marchand; the B’s winger won a puck battle to get it to Torey Krug to tie it in the third, and then he scored the game-winner that bounced every which way before crossing the goal line.

How they got to that point, though, wasn’t pretty, even if it began with a 3-0 lead.

Jake DeBrusk, after he scored on Saturday night for just the second time this season, found the net again on Monday to open the scoring.

With 5:24 gone in the first, Kris Letang coughed up the puck at the blue line, directly onto DeBrusk’s stick. The B;’s winger cycled down to the edge of the left circle and snuck a shot past Matt Murray short side to go ahead 1-0.

The top line continued to do its thing later on in the frame against a Penguins defense that was all too welcoming to the Bruins around the slot.

Zdeno Chara pushed the puck to the half-wall to David Pastrnak behind the net, who chipped it forward to Marchand at the doorstep. The winger batted it out of the air and past Murray to go ahead 2-0 with just over seven minutes to play in the first.

Pastrnak, who already notched a point in his 12th straight game with his assist in the first, netted his 14th goal of the year just 4:22 in the second, and it was enough to chase Murray.

Pastrnak entered the zone and let a shot rip on the inside edge of the circle, beating the Pens goalie short side for a 3-0 lead. Murray allowed three goals on just 11 shots from the Bruins before being relieved by Tristan Jarry.

The Pens answered with their first tally just over a minute later. A blast from the point by Justin Schultz took a weird bounce off the boards to Jared McCann, who found Dominik Kahun in front of an open net to make it a 3-1 contest.

Defensive breakdowns did the Bruins in during the second. First, it was Nick Bjugstad on a breakaway with 9:56 gone in the frame. The Pens center got behind the B’s defense and flipped it past Halak.

With four minutes left in the second, Bryan Rust knotted things up 3-3. Evgeni Malkin slid a pass to the Penguins winger, who beat Sean Kuraly and then wristed it past Halak for a new game.

The Penguins outshot the Bruins 16-3 during the stretch since the Bruins went ahead 2-0; one of those shots was Pastrnak’s goal, but the differential wore them down.

It only got worse from there.

The Bruins power play generated nothing late in the second, and Charlie McAvoy got tripped up without a call on their best chance. John Marino got the puck out of the penalty box and the Easton native scored his first career goal on a breakaway with two seconds left in the frame to put the Penguins ahead 4-3.

During a 4-on-4 with 11:46 left in the third, the Bruins knotted things up.

Marchand made a strong effort to keep the puck in the offensive zone and found Krug at the bottom of the circle, who ripped in his second goal of the season.

Charlie McAvoy helped stop another shorthanded Penguins breakaway in the third, but collided with the post and was down for a few moments before skating off on his own, but he didn’t return. Krug also went off a few minutes later, being pushed backwards into the post on an Alex Galchenyuk shot that went in the net but was waved off.

Krug returned shortly after, just before the Bruins went ahead.

With 1:57 left, Marchand ripped the shot off Jarry’s glove and it hit off the post, then Jarry’s back, and into the net. Bergeron sealed it with 13 seconds left with an empty net goal.

The Bruins face the Canadiens in Montreal on Tuesday night.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Cf8rBb