BOSTON – The Bruins wanted to show that they could finish up strong ahead of the NHL All-Star break, and that’s exactly what they did in an emotional, entertaining home victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
BRUINS 4, PENGUINS 3
- Haggerty's Talking Points: Nice comeback for B's
- Marchand: 'Claude isn't the issue' and speculation about Julien's job status is 'media-drive'
- Julien: 'This is the kind of effort we need'
- Leg injury knocks Brandon Carlo out of game
The Bruins scored, brawled and worked their way to a 4-3 win over the Penguins to head into the break on a two-game winning streak, and replace the recent bitter taste of losing with something much, much sweeter. Brad Marchand scored a pair of goals to lead the come-from-behind victory against a Pittsburgh group without Evgeni Malkin, and the B’s outshot the Penguins by a wide 32-18 margin while dominating puck possession.
Things started off badly for the Black and Gold as a pair of Brandon Carlo miscues led to pucks in the back of the Boston net. A Justin Schultz point shot literally went off Carlo’s stick and into the open Boston net for the first goal of the game, and Phil Kessel added a one-timer PP strike with Carlo in the box for an ill-conceived cross-checking penalty.
But the Bruins battled back in the second period with a shorthanded strike from Marchand just 1:38 into the period, and then another goal from Marchand five minutes later on the rebound of a David Pastrnak screamer. Riley Nash put the Bruins ahead with a tip of a Torey Krug shot at the end of the second period, and then Patrice Bergeron added an important PP insurance marker at the beginning of the third period.
Patric Hornqvist added a goal for the Penguins midway through the third period to get Pittsburgh within a goal of Boston, but that’s as close as they would get with the Black and Gold finishing things off on this night.