Thursday just wasn’t the best night for the Boston Bruins.
The Pittsburgh Penguins came to TD Garden and beat the Bruins 4-1 to extend their win streak to five games.
Brad Marchand scored for the Bruins, while Zach Aston-Reese, Mike Matheson, Jason Zucker and Jake Guentzel (empty net) accounted for Pittsburgh’s goals.
The game certainly could have been worse, though, but Dan Vladar was strong between the pipes with 19 saves. Casey DeSmith had 30 stops for the Penguins.
With the loss, the Bruins fell to 18-10-5, while the Penguins moved to 24-11-2.
Here’s how it all went down:
VLADAR COMES UP BIG
It was not a good start for Boston’s defense as It allowed three shots on goal in the first three minutes, and had sloppy play in its own end.
A power play proved unsuccessful for the Bruins, and Vladar kept the game scoreless with a couple of key saves.
It remained scoreless after a rough first period from Boston, with Pittsburgh holding a 7-2 shot advantage. The Bruins’ two shots came from defensemen Matt Grzelcyk and Jakub Zboril.
PENGUINS DOUBLE LEAD
The Bruins started the middle period a bit shorthanded when the team announced Brandon Carlo wouldn’t return due to an upper-body injury.
It didn’t get much better for Boston as Aston-Reese beat Charlie Coyle to make the breakout look too easy and tapped in the pass by Vladar.
The Penguins doubled their lead when Jeremy Lauzon got beat on a one-on-one against Matheson before making a move to beat Vladar to make it 2-0.
Boston showed some intensity in the final five minutes, but still was done 2-0 at the end of 40 minutes.
The Penguins outshot the Bruins 16-15.
B’S GET ONE BACK, BUT NOT ENOUGH
The Bruins finally got on the board when Marchand took a pass from Patrice Bergeron and sent the puck into the net to make it a 2-1 game.
Zucker put Pittsburgh up by two when David Pastrnak turned the puck over that led to an easy goal.
Guentzel put the nail in the coffin with the empty-net goal to make it 4-1.
But there would be no third period comeback, and the Penguins earned their fifth straight win.
UP NEXT
The two teams meet again Saturday afternoon. Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 1 p.m. ET.
