Bruins Beat Penguins 3-2 After Losing Marchand Early

Six minutes later, the Bruins extended the lead to two with a powerplay goal. Following a scary injury to Bruins’ Brad Marchand, off an offensive zone faceoff, the puck found Pavel Zacha, who made a great pass, and Mason Lohrei, who buried the goal. This was Zacha’s second primary assist in the first 10 minutes. With the goal, Lohrei has five points in his last four games and has stepped up big-time in Charlie McAvoy’s absence.

Despite going into the first intermission down 2-0, the Penguins controlled most of the quality chances in the period, winning the scoring chance battle 12-7 and the high-danger chances 9-3. The Bruins flipped the script in the second period. They produced 15 scoring chances compared to the Penguins’ five in the second frame, but both goaltenders stood tall and saved all 13 shots in the period, and the Bruins carried their two-goal lead into the final frame.

Early in the third period, the Bruins went into shutdown mode and only produced one shot on goal in the first 15 minutes. However, the Penguins finally broke through with five minutes left to play on a shorthanded goal from Anthony Beauvillier.

This goal was too little too late, even with the Penguins spending the final 90 seconds on the powerplay, and the Bruins went on to close out a 3-2 victory after Charlie Coyle added an empty net goal before Rickard Rakell scored a meaningless goal with 20 seconds left. This was a massive win for the Bruins, keeping them within fighting distance of a playoff spot. While this was a big win, they will need to be concerned as Marchand, their captain, did not return to the game after the hit he took in the first period.

Stats via Natural Stat Trick