Brad Marchand scored a game winning goal with less than two minutes left and the Boston Bruins extended their points streak to 10 straight games by winning their sixth straight game overall with a 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday night at TD Garden in Boston.
Pittsburgh (8-6-1) had the best early chances in the first period. Jake Guentzel cut right in on Boston goalie Jaroslav Halak but was stopped three minutes into action. About 25 seconds later Sidney Crosby did the same down the right wing but was also turned away. Boston (11-1-2) took the lead when Jake Debrusk intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and cut in down the left side where he fired a shot from the edge of the left faceoff circle from a bad angle that beat Penguins goalie Matt Murray at 5:24. Marchand made it 2-0 at 13:05 chipping a feed into the net from David Pastrnak who made the pass from behind the net. The goal extended the points streak for Marchand and Pastrnak to 13 and 12 games in a row respectively.
Pastrnak got his 14th goal of the season in just the teams 14th game extending it to 3-0 at 4:22 of the second period. Pastrnak got a pass from Marchand and skated onto it gliding over the blue line and snapping a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle that beat Murray short side. Murray was then replaced by Tristian Jarry after allowing three goals on 11 shots. From that point the Penguins really took over play. Dominik Kahun took a loose puck that went through Halaks crease and chipped it past the goalie from the left hand side of the net just 1:13 after Pastrnaks goal to cut it to 3-1. Nick Bjustad took a feed from Chris Letang and broke in alone beating Halak off the left post at 9:56 to make it a one goal game. Pittsburgh continued their onslaught when Bryan Rust tied it 3-3 at 15:59. At one point the shots on goal were 17-2 in favor of the visitors in the period that ended up being 20-8. A late powerplay for Boston couldn’t convert and breaking out of the penalty box Pittsburghs John Marino scored on a breakaway with 2.3 seconds left to give his team a 4-3 lead.
Boston tied it on a 4 on 4 situation at 8:14 of the third period. Marchand kept the puck in at the blue line after nearly losing it and got it to Torey Krug who one timed it from the bottom of the right faceoff circle past the glove of Jarry. Rust had a chance for the Penguins with just over 6:30 left breaking away shorthanded but was stopped by the blocker of Halak. Pastrnak had a shot in on Jarry with four minutes left but it went wide. Marchand got the game winner busting up the left wing and into the left faceoff circle and fired one that went off the right post and was going to bounce out, but instead it bounced off Jarrys back and into the net at 18:03. Patrice Bergeron added an empty netter at 19:47.
Halak stopped 40 of 44 shots for the win in net for Boston as the Bruins were outshot 44-26. Halak is now 16-3-3 in starts at home as a Bruin in his career. Marchand had two goals and three assists, Pastrnak had a goal and an assist, and David Krejci chipped in a two point night with two assists. Jarry stopped 12 of 14 shots in relief of Murray in the Pittsburgh loss. The Penguins were 0-1 on the powerplay, while the Bruins were 0-3.
Boston is right back in action Tuesday night when they travel to Montreal to battle their archrival Canadiens at 7:30 p.m.
