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If there was one thing that could cure the home-ice woes of the Boston Bruins, it was a visit from the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team that has not won in Boston dating back to Apr. 20, 2013.
And in spite of a 42-shot effort from
Sidney Crosby and the Pens, that stat remained up to date, as the Black and Gold of Boston took their season-series finale by a 5-1 final on Wednesday night.
“I mean I don’t have a great explanation for you,” Crosby, who finished the night with three shots on goal in 20:31 of time on ice, said. “We’ve got to score. I mean we had a ton of shots, a ton of chances, and, you know, we’ve got to find a way to put the puck in the net and give ourselves a chance.”
In a first period that belonged to Pittsburgh, at least in terms of shots, 13-to-10, the Bruins broke through when a
David Krejci lob pass to
David Pastrnak put No. 88 on a breakaway, where he was hooked by Pittsburgh defenseman
Derrick Pouliot and awarded a penalty shot.
The 19-year-old Pastrnak wasted no time in fooling
Marc-Andre Fleury, either, as he broke in with speed before putting the brakes on and waiting the extra second to beat Fleury’s five-hole.
“He’s been good for a while. I don’t think it’s [just] tonight,” said B’s coach
Claude Julien. “I’ve liked his game now for probably the last three, four. He’s come off a major injury and he’s had to catch up with the rest of the guys, and it takes time. At the beginning he really looked like he was having a tough time, but right now he’s certainly shown that he’s getting better and feeling more and more confident. To me, tonight he was the guy for all three periods that I thought skated really well for us.”
Pastrnak’s goal improved to 3-for-3 on penalty shots this year (the other two from Brad Marchand), and have three penalty shot goals in one season for the first time in the franchise’s 92-year history.
And while penalty shots don’t come with assists, of course, it was a goal that does not happen for the Black and Gold had it not been for the great, quarterback-esque lob up from Krejci to jump No. 88.
As the Bruins rolled with the lead with a relentless forecheck that often left Pittsburgh scrambling in their own end, Pastrnak came through with his second goal of the game, scored 3:12 into the second period, and a product of
Loui Eriksson pressure on Pittsburgh’s
Olli Maatta.
The goals, his seventh and eight of the season respectively, gave Pastrnak his first two-goal game of the season, his first since Jan. 13, 2015, and of course, the third of his NHL career.
Pittsburgh countered just 55 seconds after Pastrnak’s second goal, with a kicking redirect from
Tom Kuhnhackl for his second goal in the last three games played. A goal that was ultimately upheld after a review that determined that Kuhnhackl did not make a distinct kicking motion towards goal.
The Bruins then survived a late-period penalty-kill following a
Landon Ferraro hooking call on Pittsburgh’s
Kris Letang, and skated on the positive side of a 2-1 edge through 40.
It would be more than enough.
Boston extended their lead to two behind
Jimmy Hayes’ goal scored off a beautiful rush and dish from centerman
Ryan Spooner at the 10:34 mark of the period. That became a three-goal edge when Ferraro snapped a 26-game goalless skid with a breakaway dagger at 14:26, and then jumped out to four behind
Brad Marchand’s 31st of the year, scored at 15:27.
“Although we won by a fair margin there, I really felt we were tight in the first two periods,” said Julien. “Although our guys were really trying to do the right things out there, as far as not giving them too many chances, that kind of stuff, they were skating and they were a lot quicker than we were for the first two periods. The first was a tough one, told the guys to loosen up a little bit, got a little bit better in the second; we looked more like ourselves in the third.”
With the victory, the Bruins swept the season series with Pittsburgh for the first time since 2005-06.
Random thoughts and notes
- This was a game the Bruins needed. Yes, the club entered play with wins in six of their last 10, but home wins have been elusive (this was their first home win in regulation since Jan. 16) and to come up this way against a team chasing you in the standings (Pittsburgh entered play just one win away from catching the Bruins) is huge. And with scoring from across the board, and with a harder forechecking presence in this game, this felt like one of those signature ‘character wins’ the B’s have longed for.
“I think we stick to [our identity] really well on the road and we’re trying to get back to that at home,” Ferraro said after the victory. “Tonight was a big step for us and you know we weren’t doing it for a while. We don’t have a very good home record and we’re trying to change that, especially going into playoffs down the stretch here. So it was a big step tonight.”
- This game was a nice reminder what a game-changing presence an energetic David Pastrnak can be for the Bruins. It’s been a relatively quiet season from Pastrnak -- I’d even make the case that he’s taken a slight step back this season, due in large part to the injuries he’s battled -- but No. 88 seems back to using his shifty and quick movements with the frequency you were accustomed to in 2014-15. Pastrnak will still make the occasional blind-pass turnover, as will most most rookies with offensive-minded games, but it really appears that Pastrnak’s game is back to where it was a year ago.
“When you look at David last year, even the beginning of this year, every time he was in a battle along the walls you’d find him on his butt. So now he’s a little bit more – it’s not just about being stronger, it’s also about the experience,” Julien said. “I think he’s getting a little bit lower versus standing up straight; the minute you stand up straight you’re off balance. He’s trying to avoid the hit and that was hurting him more than anything else. It’s really gotten better in there. He’s never been a guy to shy away. As you know, he was on his butt because he was going there. But he’s getting a lot better along the walls and his skating game. The fact that he’s been playing now for a while has made a big difference, too.”
Podcast to be Named Later with Andy Merritt
The New England Hockey Journal’s Andy Merritt and I talk about Wednesday’s Bruins-Penguins final, Loui Eriksson, 90s NBA nicknames, and other nonsense. (One mistake: I said that the Bruins have the Islanders at home next week, meant to say in two weeks. My bad!)
Up next
The Bruins will head back on the road, to Carolina this time, for a Friday night affair with the Hurricanes. A road juggernaut this season, the Bruins will arrive to Raleigh with wins in 20 of their 30 road contests this season, and with a 7-3 victory over the Dallas Stars in their last road tilt. This will be the first of three head-to-heads between the Bruins and ‘Canes this season. (How? It’s almost February.)
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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