Bruins Squander Two-Goal Lead in Loss to Pittsburgh

BOSTON - David Pastrnak scored two first-period goals, but the Bruins squandered the two-goal advantage, allowing four unanswered goals to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 4-2 loss on Tuesday night at TD Garden in their return from the All-Star break.
Pittsburgh responded with two goals in 28 seconds - both from former Bruins winger Danton Heinen - in the opening minutes of the second period to tie the game, before Sidney Crosby (12:53 of the second on the power play) and Bryan Rust (18:31 of the third into an empty net) added tallies to secure the Penguins' comeback.

"Goaltending picks you up some nights, and it can deflate you, and I think we saw both in the second period," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said of Jeremy Swayman's 21-save performance. "So, it gets away from us a little bit. Turnover, we have a D joining, we didn't have possession of the puck, so not a great decision, didn't defend it very well. You're not going to play a perfect game. Their guy made more stops than our guy did, and I think that ends up being, to me, the bigger story in the game."
Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry, fresh off his second career All-Star Game appearance, was immense, making 43 stops to pace Pittsburgh and frustrate the Bruins, who generate Grade-A scoring chances consistently throughout the game.
"They got saves, we didn't. That's it. That's my take," said Cassidy. "We probably had more chances than them in that [second] period. Did we make some mistakes in front of our goaltender? Yes. I don't think we made a mistake on the second goal. It was kind of a bad one. The first one, like I said, we didn't have clear possession coming through the neutral zone, our D activated, which we don't mind, but you have to have possession.
"And then we didn't defend the 2-on-1. I'm not sure what we were thinking on that. Heinen came off the bench, maybe our D didn't see him coming, but you've got to defend it better. Power-play goal, we lose a battle in the corner. It's a good battle, Crosby, and [Brandon] Carlo got beat back to the front of the net."
The Bruins have now squandered two-goal leads in three of their last five games (Boston fell to Colorado, 4-3, in overtime on Jan. 26 and rebounded to beat Seattle, 3-2, on Feb. 1), though Cassidy was not overly disappointed in his club's effort against the Penguins.
"I think this game was more of a complete game than some of the other ones," said Cassidy. "Seattle the other day got away from us with a two-goal lead - there were some quick goals, I don't think it was a complete breakdown. And I don't think these were, I really don't. It wasn't a barrage in the second period, they were opportunistic. We need to be better, we need saves when we do break down. We're not a perfect team, but it has happened to us.
"I thought we were generating enough to get that goal back, we just got a little risky at times, and that's where you can't get into the trade chances type of mentality. Some nights it will work for us and some nights it won't - and tonight probably not against Pittsburgh or Colorado for that matter."

Bergeron Exits Early

Patrice Bergeron left the game with just under nine minutes remaining in the third period and did not return after suffering an upper-body injury on an awkward collision with Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby along the boards. Bergeron fell backward into the wall and appeared to bump his head on the way down. Cassidy did not have an update on the centerman's condition following the game.
"I don't know if the concussion [spotter] took him out the way he went into the boards. I wouldn't be surprised," said Cassidy. "When you're down like that, that's typically what happens. I didn't speak to him, and he didn't come back to the bench. I went into the training room and he wasn't there. That's about all I've got for right now. Hopefully he is OK."

Marchand Gets Match

Brad Marchand was given a two-minute minor for roughing and a five-minute match penalty for an attempt to injure after a tussle with Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry in the crease with 25 seconds remaining in the third period.
"I don't know, that happened quick," said Cassidy. "Honestly, lack of discipline, obviously, on Brad's part in that situation…I just watched the replay at the end, it looks like some words were exchanged. I don't know if there was an incident in the second period that precipitated it. I wasn't in the room, I don't know. Someone said that.
"Still, gotta have better discipline at the end of the day. Brad's a leader on the team and he needs to control his emotions in that situation."

Pastrnak Pots Two

The Bruins opened up a 2-0 lead in the first period on tallies from Pastrnak - his 23rd and 24th goals of the season - at 2:01 and 15:34. Both goals came off of primary helpers from Taylor Hall as the duo continued to their torrid stretch together on Boston's second line.
"Just having good chemistry," said Pastrnak. "Doesn't matter…we lost. So, not a topic we want to talk about. We like to play with each other and building our chemistry, getting better, but still a lot to work at."