At long last, the Boston Bruins have won a game.
The Bruins outlasted the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena, holding on for a 3-2 win to put an end to a five-game losing skid that predated the two-week-long break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
While the Bruins entered the game cold, no one in the league has been hotter than David Pastrnak lately, riding a 16-game point streak.
Pastrnak wasted no time extending that streak to 17 against Pittsburgh, scorching the Penguins by getting the scoring with his 32nd goal of the season just 92 seconds into the game.
The early excitement, though, was soon cut short and replaced by grave concern after Penguins defenseman P.O. Joseph. drove Brad Marchand into the corner boards with a scary hit. Marchand was slow to get up and needed help getting back to the bench before exiting. He missed the remainder of the game with an upper-body injury.
Jopseh himself was later knocked out of the game as well with an upper-body injury after taking a hit from Mark Kastelic.
Although no penalty was assessed for the hit on Marchand, Mason Lohrei soon made the Penguins pay by scoring his fourth goal of the season on the power play, while Evgeni Malkin served a minor penalty for hooking.
After that, though, the offense evaporated for the Bruins.
They had several chances to add to their lead, including a penalty shot attempt for Pastrnak early in the third period, but failed to capitalize on any of them.
The biggest missed opportunity of all came with 5:59 left to play. Boston had a chance to tack on an insurance goal on the power play but instead gave up a shorthanded goal to Anthony Beauvillier that cut the lead to 2-1.
But despite their best efforts, Joonas Korpisalo and the Bruins’ penaltykillers refused to let another two points in the standings slip away.
While all else was falling apart, Boston’s shorthanded unit held it together, killing off six of seven shorthanded situations in front of Korpisalo, who stopped 29 of 31 shots in net.
The PK’s perfect day ended when Rikard Rakell stuffed a puck past Koprislao with less than half a minute to go. That certainly would’ve spelled disaster for the Bruins if not for Charlie Coyle’s empty-net goal moments before.
With the win, the Bruins improved their record to 28-25-8. They’ll visit the Minnesota Wild tomorrow afternoon.
