By René Reyes/DFP Staff
With Sidney Crosby out for his fifth straight game with a concussion just as the Pittsburgh Penguins came into town for Saturday’s matinee, the Boston Bruins seemed to be in prime position to cap off the week with their fourth win in six days.
But Pittsburgh center Jordan Staal tallied the game-winner at 3:25 of the third and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside a season-high 44 shots, as the Penguins (28-14-4) avoided another late-game meltdown and held on for a 3-2 victory over the Bruins (24-13-7) at the TD Garden.
“It was a tough battle,” Staal said. “They are a good team. They played a pretty solid game. I thought that [Fleury] stood on his head for us in the third.”
The Bruins peppered Fleury with a barrage of shots in the final frame but were unable to stage a comeback like they did on Monday against the same Penguins, when they scored four unanswered goals in the last four minutes and escaped Consol Energy Center with a 4-2 result.
“We had plenty of chances,” said Bruins center Gregory Campbell. “I thought we probably could have had a better start. Nevertheless we battled back, and we played pretty well. I mean they were battling and playing pretty hard too, so sometimes it goes like that.”
The Penguins jumped out to the early 1-0 advantage at the 10:57 mark of the first period. B’s antagonist Matt Cooke came out of the penalty box at an opportune time, collected the puck and raced down the right wing with it before sliding it across to Staal at the left circle. Staal then dished the puck to forward Chris Kunitz in the slot, who tapped it home for his 15th goal of the season.
The play went under review to see if Kunitz had kicked the disk in, but head referee Dave Jackson explained that Kunitz didn’t demonstrate any kicking motion, and as a result, the goal would count.
Bruins coach Claude Julien agreed with the call.
“I guess the kicking motion for them, the foot has to kind of leave the ice and it’s got to be a kicking motion,” Julien said. “I mean, they reviewed it and you have to respect that. There’s going to be no argument from our side of it. If they review it and they feel it’s a goal, it’s a goal.”
Forward Pascal Dupuis doubled the Penguins’ lead only 41 seconds into the second period. Defenseman Zbynek Michalek’s shot from the point went wide left, deflected off the end boards and right to Dupuis, who tucked the rebound into the right post before B’s netminder Tuukka Rask (33 saves) could get there in time.
Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg and forward Michael Ryder scored 13 seconds apart in the second to pull the Bruins into a 2-2 tie with the Penguins.
Seidenberg netted the Bruins’ first goal at 11:28 when his slap shot from the left point traveled through traffic and found the back of the net.
“It was good pressure by the fourth line,” Seidenberg said of his goal. “I mean they were grinding it out. And the puck just jumped out, I just shot and [forward Daniel Paille] had a great screen in front of the net so it went in.”
Following the face-off at center ice after the Bruins got on the board, B’s center Marc Savard fed a no-look pass to Ryder, who charged down the ice and fired a wrist shot that whizzed by Fleury.
“I was coming in down the wing and was trying to use [Michalek] as a screen,” Ryder said. “Fleury sees the puck most of the time and makes that save so I was just trying to use the defenseman as a screen.”
Penguins coach Dan Bylsma immediately called a timeout to calm his squad down, which had surrendered its two-goal cushion in the blink of an eye.
“It was part of the consideration,” Bylsma said when asked if he would have called the timeout if he were playing against any team other than the Bruins given their history of comebacks against the Penguins. “It was part of the consideration given the history. I also don’t like having a timeout in my hand at the end of the game, and I just felt like we needed to look up at the clock and it’s 2-2.
“We had played a lot of good hockey in that second period at our pace, and we gave up the two goals and we still had time to get our heads straight and our guys did that for sure.”
The Penguins went ahead for good on Staal’s goal with under 16 minutes to go in regulation. Staal got a hold of the loose puck in the slot and beat Rask with a strong finish on the backhand.
“It wasn’t pretty, just getting to the net,” Staal said. “I think we needed one like that. We did a decent job of getting in front of the net. We need to do that a little more. It wasn’t going to be pretty.”
Despite the loss, Julien was satisfied with his team’s overall effort.
“There’s times where it’s unfortunate you lose a game,” Julien said. “And I thought the effort was there and I thought the focus was there to win the hockey game tonight. And I mean unfortunately we had a lot of chances where pucks went through Fleury and instead of ending up in the net. They either hit the post or the side of the net or trickled wide. And I think the guys really gave it a good shot there, especially in the third period.”
For others such as Rask, the loss wasn’t so easy to swallow.
“These are the games that you want to step up and win the game for your team because they played so well,” Rask said. “And then today, you know, we lost. It sucks.”
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