BOSTON _ Twenty-four seconds.
Those quick ticks off the clock were all it took for the Penguins to take a one-goal lead over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night at TD Garden. In just his second game back from core muscle surgery, Sidney Crosby ripped a slap shot from the left circle past Jaroslav Halak.
Twenty-four seconds. Those fleeting moments of time might also be the entire duration that the Penguins out-played the home team during a 4-1 loss.
With depth scoring, production from one of the league's top lines and a suffocating penalty kill, the Bruins stormed back to snap the Penguins' four-game winning streak in dominant fashion. Pittsburgh dropped to 29-13-5.
Pittsburgh and Boston entered Thursday night as two of the Eastern Conference's best teams. Boston led the Atlantic Division with 66 points, while the Penguins sat in second place in the Metropolitan Division with 63. But for much of the game, Boston looked like the separation between the two teams was much greater than the three points in the standings would suggest ... and even the five points in the standings by the end of the game.
The tide began to turn moments after Crosby's goal. The Penguins were forced to kill back-to-back penalties charged to Zach Aston-Reese and John Marino. Putting an opponent on the power play is never advisable. It's especially not a good idea against the Bruins, who have the league's second-most efficient power-play unit.
Pittsburgh snuffed out both of those power plays thanks in part to a couple fantastic saves from Tristan Jarry. But the ice had been tilted heavily in Boston's direction _ and for good.
Boston eventually tied the score at 1 just over 10 minutes into the game. Center Sean Kuraly ripped a shot on goal. The puck changed directions off Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson's leg and went past Jarry.
Just over two minutes later, Boston took its first lead of the game. The Penguins struggled for considerable chunks of the game to get the puck out of their own zone. In this sequence alone, they iced the puck once while trying to throw it out of danger.
Then, on the ensuing faceoff, Karson Kuhman picked Teddy Blueger's pocket and ripped a shot. Par Lindholm provided the redirection in front to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.
The game could have gotten away from the Penguins much earlier had it not been for Jarry. The goalie who stole the No. 1 goalie job from Matt Murray and became a first-time All-Star looked every bit deserving of the accolade for most of the night. He ended the night with 29 saves, including on several Grade-A Boston opportunities.
Tempers flared and emotion eventually bubbled over. The teams combined for a dozen penalties in the first period two periods alone. Bruins fourth-line winger Chris Wagner, especially, drew the ire of the visitors. Twice he went to the box. He also clobbered Brandon Tanev high and hard, sparking a scrum but no penalties on either side.
The escalation reached the point that Patric Hornqvist, an agitator who somehow has never really been in a true fight in his career, ended up dropping the gloves. Earlier this year, he got tagged with his first fighting major of his career. But that was more of a wrestling match than anything else.
Well, he got his money's worth this time. He and Torey Krug, who were penalized for roughing, came out of the box and started throwing haymakers.
Even the fight from an unlikely source couldn't spark the Penguins. Just 3:19 into the third period, the Bruins' potent top line cracked through. Patrice Bergeron ripped a shot over Jarry's glove hand to extend Boston's lead to two goals, essentially sealing the game. Brad Marchand, another member of that top line, tacked on an empty-netter to add the exclamation point.
The Penguins continue their road trip on Friday when they travel to face the Detroit Red Wings, who are without question the worst team in the league. Then, they'll be back in Pittsburgh for a Sunday afternoon game against the Bruins, the final meeting of the regular season.
But with how both teams have performed the last couple weeks, it might not be the last time the two teams see each other in the 2019-20 campaign.
