Elias Lindholm had a goal and an assist and the Boston Bruins beat the host Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 on Sunday afternoon.
Fabian Lysell, Morgan Geekie and Jakub Lauko also scored for the Bruins (33-39-9, 75 points), who had lost two of their previous three. David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha each had two assists and Joonas Korpisalo made 24 saves. Pastrnak stretched his point streak to nine games (eight goals, 12 assists).
Rickard Rakell provided the offense for the Penguins (33-36-12, 78 points). Tristan Jarry stopped 28 shots.
Lindholm gave Boston a 1-0 lead with just three seconds left in the first period. He banged in his own rebound after Jarry had made the first save off Lindholm's tip attempt on Pastrnak's pass.
Lysell got his first NHL goal on a power-play effort 8:52 into the second period to make it 2-0. He put in a cross-crease pass from Zacha.
Geekie got his career-high 32nd goal with 8:04 left in the middle period on a shot from the left circle. It originally appeared that Geekie's shot hit the goal post and then Pastrnak put the rebound into the net, but instant replay showed that Geekie's original shot went in. Geekie has a 10-game point streak (eight goals, 10 assists).
Rakell's power-play goal with 16 seconds left in the second period put Pittsburgh on the scoreboard. It was Rakell's career-high 35th.
Lauko added an empty-net goal for the Bruins late in the third.
The Bruins saw a few more good chances in the first period. Geekie had two on one-timers from the left circle less than 30 seconds apart during a power play.
Jarry went post-to-post to stop Geekie on the first attempt with 8:23 remaining in the first, and Geekie shot wide from a little closer to the goal line but with a wide-open net with about eight minutes left in the opening period.
Jarry also denied Fraser Minten's one-time shot from the bottom of the left circle with 6:58 remaining in the first period.
Game Notes
- Your TOI Leader was Henri Jokiharju, who logged 20:59
- There was a real fear we were in for a total snoozefest with how this one started, with maybe the vague hope that the initial chippiness would blossom into a fight of some kind. Well, we got some roughing calls, and then an awful lot of interesting goals in the 2nd, so if nothing else anyone who showed up as a Bruins fan definitely got their money’s worth! It also featured a rare opportunity for the Bruins to dominate a game for once, which was a very welcome sight given how some of these games have gone lately.
- Nikita Zadorov got thrown out of the game for abuse of official in the 2nd period after getting a little rough with Conor Dewar, which is...yeah, whatever dude. I’m sure you’ve never been yelled at by a gigantic russian guy on Pittsburgh ice before. Save those kinds of calls for when they take a swing at you.
- Morgan Geekie is on a 5 game scoring streak, and has been just a big part of the flickers of offense for the Bruins as Pasta has recently. Good stuff from those two as per usual.
- So hey! Elias Lindholm decided he wanted to finally start catching up on this whole goal scoring thing, and had a great tally to get his 17th of the year. Wouldn’t it be funny if he got a hat trick in game #82?
- Fabian Lysell has had an extremely up and down time as a Bruin, but having your first NHL goal in a game where he and Fraser Minten were two of the best players on the ice? That’s gotta be a great feeling. He and Minten seem to have a budding chemistry, and while I don’t know what this team will look like come Free Agency, I would love for these two to get a chance to play more meaningful minutes together.
- Korpisalo had an otherwise slow day, stopping 23 of 24 against a Penguins team that’s probably going to be cored like an apple this offseason. That said, given his last four starts, it’s another example of a game the Bruins’ goaltending badly needed, and I’m glad he put up a solid effort!
- 60 minutes of regulation hockey, and it’s all over.
