After Tuesday’s morning skate at PPG Paints Arena, Marcus Pettersson was asked about the need to replicate the kind of prudent, playoff-style puck that allowed the Penguins to shut out the Boston Bruins, 1-0, two days earlier.
“That’s the way we’ve got to play. We looked at some video this morning and saw what we do well when we defend,” he said. “I thought we created offense from playing hard defense, so we don’t have to take chances to create offense.”
The Bruins must have hacked into his virtual conference call. Because that’s exactly what they did to beat the Penguins, 3-1, on Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena.
With the loss, Pittsburgh fell to 3-4-1 in the season series against Boston.
The Bruins played a patient brand of hockey, focusing on defense first and going the other way when opportunities arose. The Penguins were far from perfect, certainly not as sharp as Sunday. But it was a tight game until the Bruins blew it open with goals from Brad Marchand and Taylor Hall in the third period.
Hall’s goal, which will make it onto the morning highlight shows, summed up the night. The Bruins took care of business in their own end before reclaiming the puck and heading the other way. Hall stickhandled through Sidney Crosby then ripped a shot past Tristan Jarry’s blocker to make it 3-0 with 7:42 left.
That was one of three goals that the Bruins scored off the rush Tuesday.
The Penguins allowed just one chance off the rush Sunday, per Sportlogiq. It took the Bruins about 10 minutes to top that Tuesday. Patrice Bergeron missed just wide from the slot on a 3-on-2. Moments later, at the end of another odd-man rush, Jarry had to shrug off a point-blank shot from David Pastrnak.
The Penguins also had early chances to seize the lead. They had two first-period power plays, one of which began 1:32 into the game. Despite keeping possession in the zone for much of the first one against what was the NHL’s second-ranked penalty kill entering Tuesday, they couldn’t get the puck past Tuukka Rask.
The Bruins generated more offense off the rush during the second period and came close to scoring on a few occasions. Sean Kuraly got behind the Penguins at one point but his rising shot hit Jarry’s helmet and ramped up into the netting.
Finally, with 1:50 left in the second period, somebody got on the scoreboard. It was the Bruins, with a beautiful goal from their old playoff hero, David Krejci.
Krejci lugged the puck across the Pittsburgh blue line, faked a shot then used a slick toe drag move to pull the puck past Mike Matheson. The half step he got on the defenseman gave him the space he needed to whip a backhand over Jarry’s left leg pad and under his glove. The goal was scored on Boston’s 21st shot.
That snapped Jarry’s shutout streak at 125 minutes, 36 minutes, dating back to the April 22 win over the New Jersey Devils. He was back in goal for the Penguins after making 30 saves in Sunday’s win to earn his first shutout since 2019.
Looking to spark his squad, coach Mike Sullivan switched up his lines at the start of the third period. Jason Zucker was moved off of Jeff Carter’s line, which had been effective since Carter was acquired prior to the April 12 trade deadline.
Zucker traded places with Kasperi Kapanen, who had been on Teddy Blueger’s line. After the morning skate, Sullivan remarked that he liked the energy Kapanen had brought to the lineup since returning from injury five days earlier.
This time, tweaking the lines didn’t enact much change. Brad Marchand whacked home a rebound to make the score 2-0 after Jarry misplayed his initial shot. Then Hall scored just over three minutes later to put the game out of reach.
Mike Lange, back inside the radio booth for at least one night, finally got a chance to bust out one of his signature goal calls when Carter scored a late goal, his third tally since joining the team. But that was it for the Penguins in his return.
Entering Tuesday, Pittsburgh had won eight of nine at home against Boston.
The Penguins on Thursday begin their final road trip of the regular season with a matchup against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena. They will play them twice before heading to Philadelphia for two games against the Flyers.
