Bruins Suffer Costly Loss to Penguins

All good things must come to an end and that was the case for the Boston Bruins Thursday night at the TD Garden against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Boston entered their third home game of the season against the Penguins as winners of their last 10 at home against Pittsburgh, including the first two meetings back in January. Once again, the Bruins scoring woes reared their ugly head against Pens goalie Casey DeSmith, who made 30 saves in Pittsburgh’s 4-1 victory. The last time Pittsburgh won in Boston before Thursday was on Nov. 24, 2014.

The loss was extra hard on the Black and Gold when Brandon Carlo, playing just his second game from a concussion he received on March 5 against the Washington Capitals, left the game after just seven minutes of ice time with an upper-body injury.

Already down one defenseman, Jeremy Lauzon was not on the bench to start the second period, but he made his way back to the bench and onto the ice shortly after the period began. As has been the theme with the blue line this season, Charlie McAvoy took a big hit at the end of the second period behind the Penguins net and was slow getting off the ice. Luckily, he returned for the third period.

In the third period, Matt Grzelcyk left eight minutes into the third period after taking a deflected puck to the head. He also returned a couple of shifts later.

Trailing 2-0 entering the third, the Bruins cut the deficit to 2-1 with 8:21 left in the game, but a Jason Zucker goal 1:54 later off a Bruins turnover at center ice regained the two-goal for the Penguins and ultimately sealed the win.

The seven-game homestand continues Saturday afternoon with a 1 p.m. matinee against the same Penguins, who are one of the hottest teams in the league going 12-2-1 in their last 15 games and winners of five straight. After losing for the second time in the last three games, it’s quickly back to the drawing board Boston both offensively and defensively.