BOSTON – The Bruins were hoping for a much better, more energetic response on home ice after dropping a dud against the Blue Jackets, and they got what they were looking for against a Pittsburgh Penguins team furiously chasing them.
David Pastrnak scored two goals for the Bruins as he continues to round into explosive form, and the Bruins net three insurance goals before running away with 5-1 victory over the Penguins at TD Garden. The win improves the Bruins to 13-15-3 on home, and gave Boston another victory against playoff-level competition in a challenging stretch.
It was the David Pastrnak show in the first two periods as the 19-year-old accounted for all of Boston’s offense while helping the B’s build up a slim lead on the Penguins.
David Krejci fired a long stretch pass to Pastrnak, and the smooth right winger was slashed by Derrick Pouliot thereby preventing him from a breakaway scoring attempt. So Pastrnak was awarded the penalty shot, and promptly beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a five hole attempt for his first goal of the evening.
Then Pastrnak doubled his scoring output in the second period when he intercepted a sloppy Olli Maatta pass deep in the Pittsburgh D-zone, and snapped a forehand past Andre-Fleury to make it a two goal lead. The Penguins got one of those scores back when Tom Kuhnhackl caught a Tuukka Rask rebound off the skate blade, and directed it into the open portion of the Boston net.
Jimmy Hayes, Landon Ferraro and Brad Marchand scored in the the period to pad the Bruins lead.
Tuukka Rask made a season-high 41 saves in the victory.