Recap: Bruins defeated by Penguins, 4-1, to open road trip

The Boston Bruins fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1, after failing to recover from a few soft goals tonight in the Steel City.

“We generated enough tonight to score more than Pittsburgh,” Bruce Cassidy said. “But we didn’t finish very well and they did.”

The Bs got off to a good start in the first period and it looked like things were heading in the right direction. They had more shots in the first frame tonight than they did in all of Saturday’s game. Entry into the offensive zone was strong and they were winning puck battles.

The Bruins opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 6:47 in the first period. Brad Marchand hit Matt Grzelcyk with a pass at the point. Through traffic and with a screen by Nick Ritchie, he put a wrist shot top-shelf over Tristan Jarry’s stick. 1-0 Bruins.

But the story of the game shifted in the final minutes of the first, with Jaroslav Halak letting in two weak goals.

The Penguins tied the game at 16:51 in the first period. Through the neutral zone, Kasperi Kapanen passed to Evan Rodrigues who was entering the offensive zone on the left side. From the outside hash marks, Rodrigues fired a wrist shot at Halak which went through his five-hole. 1-1 game.

The Penguins took the lead at 18:34 in the first period. Jake Guentzel found Sidney Crosby sliding down the right circle towards the goal line where at a hard angle, his one-timer snuck under Halak’s glove. 2-1 Penguins.

It didn’t seem like a huge deal, heading into the locker room only down by one goal. But the second period started with a penalty kill. Plays started to get away from the Bruins, despite outshooting the Penguins.

A penalty on Connor Clifton led Pittsburgh to take a two-goal lead.

The Penguins got a two-goal cushion at 11:40 in the second period with a power-play goal from Evgeni Malkin, for his 1,100th career point. Crosby set Malkin up at the top of the right face-off circle where he skated inside of it and got a quick snap shot over Halak’s glove. 3-1 Penguins.

From here on out, the Bruins just couldn’t finish on chances. They continued to get pucks to the net, outshooting the Pens each period, but quality opportunities weren’t there.

Guentzel scored into the empty net to make the final score, 4-1.

It’s going to be a long, hard road ahead for the Bruins if they can’t figure out secondary scoring.

The Bruins are back in action tomorrow against the Penguins at 7 pm.