Boston Takes Two on Four-Goal Win

(Photo: Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire)

The Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins were back at it at TD Garden on Thursday evening. The Bruins were without Tuukka Rask and Jake DeBrusk — both listed as having lower-body injuries — while Boston did get Matt Grzelcyk back in the lineup. For the B’s this meant a little shuffling of the lines. Craig Smith moved up to play the right wing with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. Charlie Coyle took the right wing on the David Krejci line and Par Lindholm slotted into the third line center slot surrounded by Trent Frederic andJack Studnicka.

It was the fourth line though for the Bruins that got them on the score board when Chris Wagner put home a Penguins defenseman’s rebound at 6:10 of the first period. That is where the score sat in what was shaping up as a pretty uneventful period. However, at 15:03 Cody Ceci notched one for Pittsburgh to tie up the game.  The Bruins continued to play their game, though not without a few missed passes and a little miscommunication, and as the clock was ticking down to the last minute of the period, Sean Kuraly deflected a shot from Anders Bjork to give the Bruins the lead back. The last five minutes may have seen some of the most action. There weren’t even a lot of penalties. Only the Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry got whistled for a trip just 52 seconds into the game, which was served by Jason Zucker.

For Boston the goals were both scored by the fourth line. Additionally it was the first goal of the season for all three goal scorers.

Boston has struggled in the second period this season, in many cases being outshot. Thursday evening’s game was no exception. However the Penguins weren’t doing much better. Only one shot had been notched, by the Penguins, as 7:46 had gone by. It wasn’t until 8:13 when the Bruins got their first shot on goal. Bergeron with a little backhand forehand move and he put the puck home off a pass from Grzelcyk. By that point of the game Coyle had replaced Smith on the top line. Coyle had played there before, so it probably made sense to Coach Cassidy when things weren’t happening.

Meanwhile defensively there were some positives that Boston showed. Jakub Zboril showed some good maneuvers at one point when he was in alone with a Penguins player to prevent Pittsburgh from having any opportunities to shoot on Jaroslav Halak. His pairing with the returned Kevan Miller has shown promise. Miller doesn’t even look like someone who has had his knee broken twice and missed as much time as he did rehabbing. And his intensity may be rubbing off on Zboril.

Once again the Bruins were leading in penalties as well. Jeremy Lauzon was whistled for an interference that pushed Drew O’Connor into Halak at 13:40 and then Grzelcyk got a holding penalty at 18:35. Studnicka did a good job of skating the puck out of the Bruins end as the Lauzon penalty was winding down, rather than just shooting it out of the zone. 

As the third period got underway, Grzelcyk was not in the box to finish his penalty. Later on it was announced that he would not be returning to the game—the result of a lower body injury. It turned out to be a new injury, not the result of an aggravation of the previous one that had kept him out of the last couple of games.

Meanwhile, just like in the first period, the Penguins were called for a penalty early in the third. This time it was 55 seconds into the frame. John Marino was sent off for an interference call. With Grzelcyk out, Charlie McAvoy was back on the top power play unit and he may have proved his worth on that unit. Forty-five seconds into the man advantage Bergeron had his second goal of the game. While he doesn’t show up on the assists, the play began with Krejci, who shot the puck up to McAvoy who was on the left of the blue line. McAvoy walked the puck to the center of the blue line and slid it to Marchand in the right circle. Marchand then made a short pass to Bergeron who was at the top of the right circle and he hammered it home.

While the Penguins outshot the Bruins in the third period, there was no “come from behind” effort really seen from Pittsburgh as there had been on Tuesday. The final horn blew and the Bruins won their fourth straight home game making them undefeated at home this season.