They were without a number of their players, and Tim Thomas had the night off completely, yet the Bruins showed some impressive muster despite taking a 5-3 loss to the Penguins at TD Garden in Boston, for the third loss against this team this year.
Though the Bruins have only lost one in their last six games, tonight there was a little bit of discrepancy in the game.
Before the game, Bruins forward Tyler Seguin was awarded the 7th Player Award which goes to a player who exceeded expectations on the ice that season. Seguin, the 20-year-old from Ontario has 65 points and 27 goals this season.
After the ceremony, the B's started back on their heels a little bit, and just 28 seconds into the game, David Krejci went to the penalty box for a Delay of Game call that threw them off a little bit from the get-go. Though the Penguins were unable to get even a shot off during those two minutes, Boston already had some catching up to do.
The Penguins came out early and put two goals up on the scoreboard, courtesy of Sidney Crosby and Paul Martin, to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead midway through the first.
Bruins forward Benoit Pouliot dashed that lead in half before the end of the period, roofing a backhanded shot over Penguins netminder Brent Johnson's glove, making it 2-1 with under two minutes to go.
It looked like things would turn around for the B's, when just 18 seconds into the second, Milan Lucic netted his 25th goal of the year to tie the game up quickly. That momentum carried through for much of the second period, and the B's looked quick and sharp in both zones.
The B's almost scored another quick one when Seguin and Marchand picked off a puck and were on a 2-0 breakaway. Marchand passed through the slot to Seguin who couldn't get it past the waiting Johnson.
"Well, I can say that I meant to save it, but that would be a lie," Johnson said. "I just…honestly, it was just all desperation. I just got over there as quick as I could, if he passed it back I’m dead in the water. But he shot it and I just got a piece of it and I was able to get Marchand’s (shot) as well."
After that, things got ugly, and the Bruins were called for two quick penalties, one right after the other.
The first was a charging call against Daniel Paille after he drilled Matt Niskanen into the boards behind the net, and the second was on Rich Peverley for high-sticking. The Penguins were given a 5-on-3 for 1:52 and converted on both of the power plays awarded to them.
James Neal picked up his 40th goal of the season on the first power play goal, and Crosby netted his second of the game and seventh of the year. Two goals in 48 seconds.
"Yeah they got a dangerous power play you got to keep them off it," Bruins forward Rich Peverley said. "Their stars took advantage and at the same time we got to kill those off, but you can’t do anything about it now - they buried their chances."
So the Bruins went into the third period down 4-2, and couldn't recover from that blow in the second. Arron Asham added another goal for the Penguins 6:15 into the third that was the back-breaker for the B's.
And if that wasn't, surely it was Johnny Boychuk going down in the third. In what appeared to be a knee-to-knee collision with Asham, Boychuk went down to the ice and needed help off the ice and did not return for the rest of the game. Because of that Torey Krug, the newest Bruins defenseman played the third most minutes for any defenseman in his NHL debut--just behind Dennis Seidenberg and Zdeno Chara.
Despite being down by three goals, Rich Peverley did score two minutes after that, but it was too little too late for Big Bad Bruins and they lost just their second game in seven games.
They pick up again on Thursday, traveling to Ottawa for their last regular season away game of the year. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
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