Penguins Drop Out of Playoff Position, Bruins Win 6-4 | 4/13/2024

Penguins lineup against the Bruins:

O’Connor – Crosby – Rust

Bunting – Malkin – Rakell

Smith – Eller – Puustinen

Zohorna – Carter – Bemstrom

Joseph – Letang

Pettersson – Karlsson

Shea – St. Ivany

Nedeljkovic

Jarry

   It had been a scoreless opening 20 for the Bruins and Penguins. Pittsburgh outshot Boston 13-09 in the first period.

   Jake DeBrusk put the Bruins in a 1-0 lead in the second at 11:52 with his 19th goal of the season, as well as his first goal since March 21st against the New York Rangers when he had nudged the puck under Alex Nedeljkovic. Only 14 seconds later, Pavel Zacha sent a wrister from the slot off a rebound to make it a 2-0 lead for Boston. This had been Zacha’s 20th goal of the season. Bryan Rust cut it to 2-1 to record his 28th of the season to put Pittsburgh on the board at 9:33 when he tapped in Drew O’Connor’s pass, and Kevin Shattenkirk struck not so long after at 8:25 to extend Boston’s lead to 3-1 to put an end to his 28-game goal drought. Shattenkirk shot from the right face-off circle with a snap shot, which resulted in Tristan Jarry replacing Alex Nedeljkovic. At 5:06, Brad Marchand pushed it to 4-1 with a short-handed wrister through Jarry’s five-hole… Michael Bunting scored at 4:08 to cut the deficit to 4-2 on a power play when he tipped in Evgeni Malkin’s pass in the crease.

   Early into the third at 15:28, Drew O’Connor scored his 16th goal of the season and his third goal in three straight games. He held Brad Marchand off for a shot from the slot after backhanding the puck past him and going around him. Morgan Geekie made it 5-3 off a one-timer and Danton Heinen struck the empty net to increase the Bruins’ lead to 6-3 with 2:47 remaining in the third frame. Evgeni Malkin scored with 1:21 left in regulation from the slot for the 6-4 final.

Jake DeBrusk on the game overall: “Obviously, they’re fighting for their lives. I think with the later start, it was definitely a different field of the game. I guess the first period, probably after that, I think there were some momentum shifts. They had some good shifts and we capitalized on our chances. So, another good test for us… that’s what we’re going to be seeing coming up in different ways – We got the two points, that’s all that matters.”

Alex Nedeljkovic on the game overall and mindset: “I actually thought I felt fine today. I felt better than I did Thursday night. I thought it was a pretty good first period, we played pretty well and we didn’t give them much… I don’t know. I don’t really know how to explain that one – There’s no good explanation. It just wasn’t good enough,” – “Same as it’s been the last 2-3 weeks, just worry about ourselves. We can control and the rest will handle itself. All we can do is just focus on what’s in front of us. Obviously sucks to let that one go tonight.”

Notes:

– Pavel Zacha recorded both a goal and an assist, and each David Pastrnak and Charlie Coyle recorded two assists.

– In his first game with the Bruins since being required in a trade with the Minnesota Wild on the eighth of March – Pat Maroon had one shot on goal in 13:16 of ice time. Maroon hasn’t played since having back surgery on February 6th.

– Linus Ullmark made a total of 28 saves for Boston, and after Alex Nedeljkovic allowed three goals on 16 shots and was replaced by Tristan Jarry, Jarry made 12 saves in relief.

– Erik Karlsson recorded an assist in his 1,000th NHL career game, and Drew O’Connor recorded both a goal and an assist.

  Karlsson has 814 points (188 goals, 626 assists), which marks him as the 10th most by a defenseman through 1,000 NHL career games. He’s behind Paul Coffey (1,249), Ray Bourque (1,059), Denis Potvin (1,011), Al Maclnnis (966), Phil Housley (959), Bobby Orr (915), Brian Leetch (900), Brad Park (823), and Doug Wilson (815).

– Sidney Crosby, who’s 36, recorded the secondary assist on Bryan Rust’s goal to reach 90 points this season (41 goals, 49 assists) in 80 games. This marks him as the ninth player in NHL history to hit this mark at 36 or older.