PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Bruins explode for five goals in the second period to beat the Pens 7-5 in Boston Saturday afternoon. The loss ends the Pens five game winning streak.
"It boils down to details," said head coach Mike Sullivan. "Some of the details got away from us tonight, mostly in the second period. That's why we gave up the types of chances we gave up. We can play the game a whole lot smarter with a whole lot more attention to detail."
"Attention to detail for us," said forward Jake Guentzel. "We got to be better there. That second period really hurt us there."
"We got to be harder in our net front," said forward Mark Jankowski. "That's something recently when we have been going well, it's something that we've taken pride in, both net fronts. In the offensive zone and especially in the D-zone being able to protect our goalie. Get sticks and get bodies, unfortunately we weren't good at that tonight and they got a couple of goals off it."
Boston got its first two goals in the first 45 seconds of the second period, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak.
Jake Guentzel would bury his 16th off the 27th assist of the season from Sidney Crosby to tie it and the Pens went back out in front at 5:11 on the second. Crosby and Guentzel with assists on Jared McCann's 9th goal, fourth in the last five games.
Brad Marchand would tie it at the 14:58 mark and then David Krejci would give Boston the lead on the power play with Marchand getting his 24th assist. Marchand would continue his dominance of the period with his 16th goal of the season with 20 seconds left and a 5-3 lead after two.
Pens would cut it to a goal after goalie Jaroslav Halak was upset after he was taken out by Anthony Angello, Pens fourth line outworks Boston 4 minutes into the third period. Going all out to keep the puck in the zone, Cody Ceci scores off the stick-side corner as Sam Lafferty centered it to Mark Jankowski and left side to Ceci to make it 5-4.
Pastrnak would score off a turnover by Mike Matheson leading to a 2 on 1 and he buried it for a 6-4 Bruins lead.
Pens Kris Letang would take a hooking penalty to keep Pastrnak from scoring into an empty net. Boston should have been awarded a goal, they weren't. Crosby would score short-handed at 18:45 to cut the lead to 6-5.
Ensuing faceoff, Bergeron would hit Crosby in the mouth with the butt end of his stick. Bruins power play done, Pens had a chance, until Marchand finished his hat trick with an empty net goal.
Fourth line would score the opening goal as Jankowski got his stick on a shot from Matheson after Jankowski won a faceoff to start the opportunity. It's Jankowski's third goal of the season.
DeSmith rare bad day
It's the most goals Casey DeSmith has given up all season and most allowed since January 19, 2019. DeSmith had not allowed more than 2 goals in a game in his last eight.
"I think it's a tough one to assess," Sullivan said. "I think the chances they scored on were high-quality. Our team defense in front of Casey needs to be better."
"Casey was big for us, we just weren't getting to sticks or guys were getting away from us or just losing our man in front of the net," said defenseman Codi Ceci. "You can't give up that many chances from the slot."
Blueger/Jarry still out
While Teddy Blueger practiced full on Friday, the forward did not return to the Pens lineup on Saturday. Blueger remains on injured reserve with defenseman Mark Friedman and forwards Evgeni Malkin and Kasperi Kapanen.
Up Next
Pens get a rare couple of days between games, starting the first of two at the Rangers Tuesday night. As of Saturday afternoon, the Rangers tied with the Flyers for fifth in the MassMutual Division winning five of their last seven.
