For the second straight game, a game involving the Bruins went late into the third with one team holding a 2-0 lead, looking in control...and coming out with a loss.
Fortunately, this time, the roles were different. The Bruins, fresh off a disheartening loss in Montreal, spotted the Penguins a 2-0 lead before storming back with 4 goals in the final 3:23 for the win.
The first period was scoreless, but the Penguins got on the board at 11:39 of the second, as Mike Rupp beat Tuukka Rask with a backhander from a severe angle on the right side. It wasn't a great looking shot, but Rask was handcuffed by it. Three and a half minutes later, with Mark Recchi in the box for roughing, Kris Letang made it 2-0 with a slapper from the point.
The third period has been Boston's best all season, and last night was no exception. The B's poured on the pressure, as Marc-Andre Fleury made several highlight reel saves. Brooks Orpik went to the sin bin for boarding, and Zdeno Chara slapped a one-timer past Fleury to make it 2-1. Patrice Bergeron won the ensuing faceoff, and Brad Marchand picked up Gregory Campbell's dump-in and scored his 7th of the year to tie it.
After that, the Penguins collapsed. Kris Letang's neutral zone giveaway led to another Bruin attack, and Jordan Staal got called for holding Dennis Seidenberg. The Bruins attacked on the ensuing power play, and Mark Recchi scored the game-winner by parking in front of Fleury and knocking home a Michael Ryder rebound. Campbell added an empty netter for the final 4-2 margin.
Notes:
- Marc Savard took a slashing penalty in the first, and then, after taking a hard hit from Orpik, got a roughing penalty for his role in the ensuing scrum. I guess that's one way to make a return to Pittsburgh.
- Recchi was the game's first star, but if you ask me, Campbell was robbed. "Soup" had a tremendous game, with 2 assists before the empty-netter, 3 shots, and a +1.
- The Bruins' oft-struggling power play finished up 2 for 5, breaking an 0 for 13 skid. The suddenly mediocre penalty kill, however, gave up a power play goal for the 6th time in 7 games.
- Andrew Ference out-Dikembe'd Seidenberg, with 6 blocked shots to Seidenberg's 4. Who wants to sex plant a tree for Ference?
- Nathan Horton and Adam McQuaid were out for this one with undisclosed illnesses. Ryder took Horton's spot on the top line, and Matt Bartkowski, a Pittsburgh native, was called up to take McQuaid's place in the lineup. Bartkowski finished with a -1, with 2 penalty minutes, in 9:53 of ice time.
- Fleury was fantastic until the final 4 minutes. The Bruins played well enough to win this one in the first 56, but "Flower" committed several acts of grand larceny, especially in the third period.
- Chara's goal started to turn the tide, and a good thing, too. Chara hasn't exactly had a classic Big Z type season so far, so maybe this will get him going.
- It's a short turnaround to tonight's tilt against the Senators. The B's will be back at TD Garden for a 7 pm start tonight.
- For a somewhat different viewpoint on this one, head over to PensBurgh. (And be gentle, will you? 48 hours ago, that was us.)