The Bruins, in concept, are constructed on goaltending and protection. Neither was on show on the Garden on Thursday night time.
Jeremy Swayman allowed a half dozen objectives whereas the B’s defensemen couldn’t clear the rebounds he was giving up, resulting in a 6-5 loss and spoiling a Bruin comeback try.
With Charlie McAvoy within the field for holding, Sidney Crosby put the Penguins up 6-5 when his shot from the highest of the left circle deflected off of Hampus Lindholm and thru Swayman’s pads with 8:41 left within the third.
The B’s pulled Swayman with 2:41 and so they had their probabilities to tie however simply couldn’t get the equalizer.
After trailing by three objectives early within the second interval, the B’s clawed again to tie with two objectives within the second after which a great thing about a shorthanded objective by Brad Marchand at 3:08 of the third interval. Charlie Coyle bulled his wayt by means of the impartial zone earlier than transferring it to Marchand on the blue line for a one-on-one battle with Kris Letang. Moving to his proper, Marchand made asmart stick verify on Letang to get again on his forehand, transfer the web after which roof it over Alex Nedeljkovic to make it 5-5. It was the B’s first shorty of the yr and Marchand’s second of the night time.
If you want objectives, this sport was for you.
The first interval was a wild one, and never in a great way for the Bruins or their goaltender, who gave up 4 objectives within the opening 20 minutes.
It began with a lot promise, because the B’s took the primary lead of the sport simply 41 seconds in, with Marchand sweeping dwelling a rebound of a David Pastrnak shot previous Nedeljkovic.
But the Penguins virtually instantly took management of he sport and took the lead on two objectives in 1:13. First, Drew O’Connor tied it up after Jeremy Swayman gave up a rebound off a Kris Letang shot.
Then coach Jim Montgomery seemed to his fourth line of Johnny Beecher, Georgii Merkulov and Oskar Steen to offer the crew a momentum-changing shift. It didn’t work out that approach. After a dominant Pittsburgh shift, Ryan Graves gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead on a deflected shot.
But simply 22 seconds later, Pastrnak tied it up, taking a fantastic Hampus Lindholm feed, throwing a faux to attract Nedeljkovic out and tucking a backhander behind him.
That, nevertheless, is the place the back-and-forth ended for the interval. Pittsburgh regained the lead 42 seconds after the Pastrnak on a pleasant trying play. Letang despatched an extended move up the ice that bounced off the top and proper to Sidney Crosby, who pulled it again and patiently waited for Jake Guentzel to reach on the backdoor. Once there, Penguin captain discovered him for the objective.
When Lars Eller scored from backside of the proper circle at 15-58, it gave Pittsburgh the primary two-goal lead of the sport. At that time, questioning whether or not Swayman would final the sport would have been truthful.
It seemed Swayman would possibly be capable to proper himself early within the second interval. But he couldn’t cease all of the bleeding. On a Pittsburgh energy play, he stopped Crosby on two level clean pictures from the slot. But simply as Brandon Carlo was getting out the penalty field, the Pens pushed the result in three when Jeff Carter scored on one other rebound objective in tight.
But with the way in which the sport was going, the B’s nonetheless weren’t out of it, if solely they might get some pictures on Nedeljkovic. At 9:51, they did simply that. Pastrnak made a gorgeous cross-ice move to Morgan Geekie, whose shot from the proper wing – simply the twelfth of the sport for the B’s – beat the goalie to make it 5-3.
After squandering an influence play, the B’s scratched again to inside a objective when Carlo’s slapper from the blue line discovered it’s approach by means of Nedeljkovic with 35.8 seconds left within the interval. All of a sudden, the B’s had been in placing distance headed into the third.
Source: www.bostonherald.com