Pittsburgh entered the game second in the NHL, killing off 89.1 percent of the penalties it had taken. On home ice, the Penguins were even more impressive, allowing just one goal on 33 chances.
But on Monday, the Bruins' PK stole the spotlight, denying Pittsburgh's potent power play on all five of its opportunities, including a pair of long two-man advantages in the second period. And it was those two 5-on-3 situations that turned the tide in Boston's 3-1 victory.
"It could have been a turning point in the game," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "I think we killed about three and a half minutes of 5-on-3. We did a good job of it. We seemed to take away the passing lanes and whenever they got a shot in was from angles and Tim [Thomas] seemed to be in the right position, so it was a great job for all the penalty killers."
Boston led 1-0 when Pittsburgh had its first chance. Brad Marchand picked up the first penalty for tripping Matt Niskanen at 3:19 of the second, leading to a spirited bout between the two unlikely combatants. Zdeno Chara joined him in the box for interference at 4:09, giving the Penguins 1:10 of 5-on-3 time.
Patrice Bergeron, Andrew Ference and Dennis Seidenberg stayed out for the full 1:10 of that advantage, helping Thomas kill it off, as well as the rest of the 5-on-4 before Chara got out of the box.
"We did a great job on the penalty kill," Thomas said. "Ideally you don't want to get into those situations, but in reality it happens. They have a great power play with the talent they have on the other side, but we did a great job there and we just bore down. Guys were doing whatever it took."
Thomas had even more work to do later in the period. The momentum from the first 5-on-3 kill helped the Bruins extend their lead to 2-0 when Benoit Pouliot scored just 69 seconds after Chara got out of the box. But Pouliot was called for goalie interference and Rich Peverley was nabbed for hooking during the delayed call, giving Pittsburgh another two-man advantage, this time for a full two minutes at 16:06 of the second.
Bergeron, Ference and Seidenberg began that PK as well, with Seidenberg making a diving block to save a goal. Thomas made plenty of stops himself, as eight of his season-high 45 saves came while shorthanded.
"I was just making sure I could see the guy with the puck," Thomas said. "Obviously you've got to respect the shot. Then try to think ahead of time what lanes look like they might be open and what they might be trying to do so you're ready to move. Our guys did a good job of shutting down the lanes so they couldn't really do anything but shoot, and that helped out a lot. And they helped out with rebounds too, because it's hard to control some of those rebounds."
Chris Kelly, Chara and Johnny Boychuk also took shifts during that second 5-on-3 as the Bruins solidified their control of the game by killing it off as well.
The Bruins then completed their domination of the special-teams battle by becoming just the second team to score a power-play goal against the Penguins on Pittsburgh ice this season, as Tyler Seguin struck 1:07 into the third period after Jordan Staal capped Pittsburgh's frustrating middle frame by taking an interference penalty just before the buzzer sounded to end the second period.
