Coming off a pair of wins at home over the Chicago Blackhawks in overtime and the Vegas Golden Knights in a shootout, the Boston Bruins played one of their two road games in November on Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Pens have struggled early in the 2026-27 season after making the playoffs last spring, while the Black and Gold entered the game sitting on top of the Atlantic Division standings. Boston, which has nine of its 11 games this month at the TD Garden, exploded for six goals in a 6-2 win over Pittsburgh for their 12th victory of the season. Here are three winners and one big loser from Boston's win.
Winner: Pavel Zacha
It was a slow start to the season offensively for Bruins first-line center Pavel Zacha. However, he has slowly begun to find his scoring touch, and against the Penguins, he tallied a pair of goals; both were rather impressive strikes against Arturs Silovs.
In the first period after former teammate Justin Brazeau gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead, Zacha was able to roof a saucer pass from David Pastrnak to tie the game. In the second period, he again buried a saucer pass, this time from JJ Peterka, for a 4-2 lead after the Pens cut a 3-1 deficit to 3-2 with a nick Roberston strike. This was a good sign for Zacha.
Loser: Erik Karlsson
It wouldn't be surprising to see Pittsburgh move defenseman Erik Karlsson at some point before the trade deadline. He didn't do much to raise his trade stock against the Black and Gold. He had a bad giveaway late in the first period in the defensive zone, where Elias Lindholm scored on a breakaway for a 3-1 lead. Karlsson finished with a plus/minus of minus-4 in 21:05 of ice time. It was a rough night for the 36-year-old veteran.
Winner: Hampus Lindholm
While Karlsson had a rough night on the ice with a minus-4, it was the opposite for Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm. He picked up the only assist in the second period when he sent a pass from the defensive zone, which sent Morgan Geekie in alone for a breakaway goal to make it 5-2 for Boston.
In the game, Lindholm finished with a plus-4 in 20:13 of ice time, while blocking three shots and dishing out a pair of hits. It was one of his better games this season.
Winner: Michael DiPietro
Usually, in a four-goal game that the Bruins had, you don't see the winning goalie be a winner, but truth be told, Michael DiPietro made some big saves when the game was close that kept Pittsburgh at bay before the Bruins were able to get some separation.
Both goals scored by the Penguins were not on DiPietro; they were a perfectly placed shot by Brazeau and Robertson's tip. He did get some help from the crossbar in the second period, but he did make a couple of big saves in the middle period when the Pens made their push after falling behind 3-1 through 20 minutes. It was DiPietro's fourth straight win.
Add us as a preferred source on Google