Bruins capitalize on Penguins’ mistakes in 6-2 win, extending Pittsburgh’s skid to four

The Pittsburgh Penguins (5-9-2, 4-3-1 home) lost their fourth straight game on Thursday night. They fell 6-2 to the Boston Bruins (12-4-1, 5-3-1 away) at PPG Paints Arena. Pavel Zacha scored twice on 2-on-1 rushes, and Boston turned Pittsburgh’s turnovers and odd-man chances into four unanswered goals after the Penguins pulled within one in the second period. Read more: Bruins capitalize on Penguins’ mistakes in 6-2 win, extending Pittsburgh’s skid to four.

Brazeau opens the scoring

Justin Brazeau gave the Penguins the lead on their first shot of the game. Hendrix Lapierre found him from below the goal line, and Brazeau beat Michael DiPietro with a snapshot from the right circle at 9:04 of the first period. It was Brazeau’s first goal of the season. It came in his second game back after missing the first 14 games with a lower-body injury.

Related: Behind the glass: Wild 5, Capitals 1 — Wild catch Caps flat-footed

Boston answered with three goals in the final eight minutes of the period. Zacha tied it at 12:07 off a pass through the crease from David Pastrnak, and Mark Kastelic deflected a Frederic Brunet point shot at 15:04 to make it 2-1. With 1:03 left, Elias Lindholm intercepted an Erik Karlsson pass in the Penguins’ zone and slid a shot under Arturs Silovs’ glove for a 3-1 lead.

Penguins push back, Bruins pull away

Pittsburgh controlled the early part of the second period and cut the lead to 3-2 at 7:57, when Nick Robertson redirected a Kaedan Korczak shot for his team-leading seventh goal.

“I thought we were committed to it, and we were getting there,” Dan Muse said of the Penguins’ start to the second period. “And then we stopped doing it.”

Boston took over again late in the period. Zacha finished a 2-on-1 with JJ Peterka at 14:24, and Morgan Geekie scored on a breakaway at 16:57 after a Penguins line change. It extended his goal streak to three games. Fraser Minten added another 2-on-1 goal at 8:39 of the third period.

Silovs made 18 saves, while DiPietro stopped 16 shots for Boston.

Boston comes as advertised

Muse pointed to the breakaways and odd-man rushes as the biggest issue.

“The number of breakaways that we gave up tonight, like we can’t expect our goalies to come up with all those saves,” Muse said. “There’s nothing sustainable there.”

Kris Letang said the Penguins played into Boston’s patient, structured system.

“They just play a structured game, and they did it to us tonight, and it made us look silly,” Letang said. “Consistency is not there at all.”

Sidney Crosby said the fix starts with the small things.

“When you’re struggling, you just gotta simplify,” Crosby said. “You’re not gonna fix everything overnight.”

Pittsburgh has lost eight of its last 10 games.

Lineup notes

Evgeni Malkin returned after missing Tuesday’s loss to Vegas with a lower-body injury, playing 16:11. Karlsson finished minus-4.

Crosby appeared to be laboring late in the first period but finished the game and said afterward that everything was fine. He did not record a point and remains tied with Marcel Dionne for sixth on the NHL’s all-time points list with 1,771.

Up next

The Penguins open a three-game West Coast trip on Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings.

Stay up to date with Disruptor Sports, your top athletic news across the nation.