clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Penguins vs. Bruins Recap: Rust scores in OT for Pittsburgh's 7th straight win

The Penguins and Bruins play a fun, back-and-forth game capped off in overtime by a goal from Bryan Rust to give Pittsburgh their 7th straight win.

By Hooks Orpik
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

1st period

The Bruins strike first, Matt Cullen kind of floats to the middle of no where and Brad Marchand ends up getting a lot of time and space to snap a puck past Matt Murray to make it 1-0.

The Penguins get it back soon after though, a nice little zone entry by Conor Sheary who gets the puck to Sidney Crosby who extends his point streak to nine games with a picture-perfect pass to Justin Schultz who proceeds to rip a beauty of a shot past Tuukka Rask . Tie game at 1.

Shots end 16-11 Bruins. Pittsburgh spending 4+ minutes on the PK hurt them from getting in a consistent groove here for sure.

2nd period

David Krecji collects his own rebound from right in front of the net (Brian Dumoulin with the stumblin' and bumblin') and puts it past Murray to put the B's back in front 2-1.

The Pens quickly get that one back too, at the tail end of a power play Nick Bonino leads a rush and Boston's defense backs way off him, so he snaps a puck into the net for his 5th goal of the season.

Shots 31-23 Beantown after 2. NBC had scoring chances at 16-11 after 2 in favor of Boston as well.

3rd period

Again on the tail end of a power play the Pens second unit comes through with Brian Dumoulin making a shot/pass that Conor Sheary redirects into the net to give Pittsburgh their first lead of the night. 3-2.

It wouldn't last though, Dumoulin and Murray have a bad miscommunication behind the net and Murray's stick gets tangled up with Dumo too. That's all the time that Pastrnak needs to jump on it and swing the puck into a vacated cage for an easy goal to tie the game at 3.


Overtime

Evgeni Malkin makes an area pass that Bryan Rust skates to and swats a backhander by Rask for the game winner.

Some Thoughts

  • Some bad luck with the refs puts the Pens on the wrong end of a 3v5 in the opening period. First, Marchand goes down near the boards, looks like Patric Hornqvist might have boarded him but he didn't really. Then the refs miss a call when David Backes appears to high-stick Ian Cole compounded only by the refs not missing Kris Letang bumping David Pastrnak along the boards on an iffy interference. (If Letang doesn't bump him, Pastrnak can regain the puck. Luckily Murray and the PK held strong, maybe some karma from the hockey gods as well. Not intentional bad calls, just the circumstance that sometimes it doesn't go your way.
  • Staying in the "it all evens out eventually file": the Bruins first goal was aided by a sloppy change from the Pens answering goal happened when Marchand went to change and left Schultz wide open. Win some, lose some.
  • Sheary gets a chance on a breakaway in the last minute of regulation but somehow the puck stays out of the net. Great move by him, but somehow Rask kept the bouncing puck from crossing the line with his legs.
  • 2 power play goals tonight and both in the dying seconds by the 2nd unit.
  • Murray saw 44 shots, save 41 of them, definitely a busy night for him. The 3rd goal against was ugly and unfortunate to send the game to OT, but shut the door from there.
  • 10 shots on goal for Marchand tonight. Jeez, thought that guy was Sid's friend.
  • Patrice Bergeron (68% on night) took Crosby's lunch money (30%) on faceoffs tonight. That RH on LH matchup plus just Bergy has given Sid a lot of problems in the past too. Some uys are really good and just have your number.
  • 6 shots on goal, a goal, an assist, Conor Sheary might have been the Pens best forward.
  • But Justin Schultz (1g+2a) was the most impactful player offensively. Seemed like he played a lot more than his 15:36 total, because when he was on the ice good things were happening all over the place.
  • Boston mostly controlled possession in OT, but then when the Pens get it, boom, game over.
  • Nice for the Pens to snap a 5 game losing streak to the Bruins and give Mike Sullivan his first win in Pittsburgh against his former team in his 4th try.

7 in a row! But you know what's better than 7? 8. Chance for that comes Friday at home against LA.

More From PensBurgh