The Bruins have been the best third-period team in the NHL all season, so it was only fitting that they showed that off to a national audience in Monday’s Winter Classic at Fenway Park.
After two periods of generating minimal offense and trailing 1-0 in the third, the Bruins came to life and came from behind with a pair of Jake DeBrusk goals to beat the Penguins 2-1 in Monday’s Winter Classic at Fenway Park.
Just as an early third-period power play ended, DeBrusk took a pass at the side of the net, powered his way to the front, and tucked the puck past Casey DeSmith to tie the game. The goal came just seconds after DeBrusk had been hobbled by friendly fire from Matt Grzelcyk. Safe to say the goal helped his foot/ankle feel a heck of a lot better. (Update: DeBrusk was spotted in a walking boot after the game, but there was no update on his status.)
Boston continued to keep the pressure on Pittsburgh, and DeBrusk struck again for what proved to be the game-winner with 2:24 to go. Taylor Hall drove to the net from the left side and the puck popped out to DeBrusk, who pounced on it before DeSmith could get reset.
With the win, the Bruins improve to 4-1 all time in outdoor games, tying the Rangers for the most outdoor wins of any team. The Bruins also won the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway against the Flyers, the 2019 Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium against the Blackhawks, and the 2021 NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe against the Flyers. Their only outdoor loss came against the Canadiens in the 2016 Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium.
The Penguins had the better chances early on, forcing Linus Ullmark to be on his game from the get-go. As he has been all season, Ullmark was up to the challenge, turning aside quality looks from Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin in the game’s opening 10 minutes.
At the other end of the ice, the Penguins would be forced to make a goaltending change late in the first period, with Casey DeSmith replacing an injured Tristan Jarry. The Bruins struggled to really test either during the opening stanza. DeBrusk had maybe the two best chances, but the puck skipped over his stick on the first and he hit the post on the second. He would have better luck a couple periods later.
The Bruins appeared to have a great chance to open the scoring while shorthanded early in the second, but a missed call from the linesman spoiled it. Brad Marchand and David Krejci took off on a 2-on-1, and Marchand tried to drag his back leg to stay onside as Krejci entered the zone. The linesman blew his whistle for offsides, but replay quickly revealed that Marchand actually had stayed onsides. Whether the Bruins would have capitalized on the chance, we’ll never know.
Two minutes later, the Penguins opened the scoring instead. Connor Clifton turned the puck over to Danton Heinen behind the Bruins net, and Heinen fed Kasperi Kapanen in front for a point-blank finish that Ullmark had little chance to stop.
That was all the Penguins would get offensively, though, as the Bruins limited them to just 13 shots on goal over the final 40 minutes of the game.
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