*Photo from Boston Sports Journal*
Perhaps all the Boston Bruins needed to score 5 on 5 goals was to play some home games. The 4th line excelled, Jaroslav Halak stopped 16 shots, and the Bruins toppled the Pittsburgh Penguins by a 4-1 score on Thursday night, improving to 5-1-1 on the season, good for second place in the east division standings.
At the 6:10 mark of the first, Chris Wagner scored his first goal of the season, putting the Bruins up 1-0 ealry on. Defensemen Cody Ceci then tied it up for Pittsburgh with a missile past Halak. Almost 4 minutes later, Sean Kuraly tipped home a tumbling Anders Bjork shot to make it 2-1 Bruins. In the second period, Patrice Bergeron tipped home a net-front shot from Charlie Coyle to make it 3-1 Boston. In the 3rd, Bergeron scored on the power play with a missile to make it 4-1 Bruins, which ended up as the final score.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy talked about the dynamic of his 4th line after the game, saying that "Kuraly's line usually gets a lot of D-zone starts. They got a centerman on each dot that can take draws like Wagner. We're building Bjork into that. Some speed, a little creativity on the line. We'll see how it works out, those guys have to do a lot of the dirty work. D-zone starts, penalty kill, some of the stuff doesn't show up in the score sheet always, playing against good players. Again, I think they're doing a good job. They're doing their part. Nice to see them get on the score sheet."
Halak stopped 16 of 17 shots that came his way, with Ceci's goal at 15:03 of the first being the only one to slip by. Halak got the start due to Tuukka Rask coming up lame after a 3rd period goal in Tuesday's win against Pittsburgh. Rask was able to finish out the game, but didn't even sit as the backup to Halak this game, leaving goalie prospect Dan Vladar to serve as Halak's backup, Rask is expected to be fully healthy for Saturday's tilt against the Washington Capitals.
Bjork talked about the mentality of the team following the win, saying that "We pride ourselves on sticking together and creating energy among ourselves as teammates and I think that's shown, we've had injuries and things like that and new guys in the lineup, young guys playing bigger roles. We're a close team and we're sticking together here which is paying off right now and something we want to continue to grow on."
With the loss, the Penguins fell to 4-3-1 on the season, good for 4th place in the east division. With the loss, they also have lost 10 straight games to the Bruins at the TD Garden in Boston. Tristan Jarry was the starting goalie for Pittsburgh this time around, stopping 16 of 20 shots that came his way, as the Penguins weren't able to get much of anything going.
The Bruins travel to Washington to face the Capitals on Saturday, with Rask expected to get the start. The Penguins travel to New York to face the Rangers, where Jarry is the projected starter on Saturday.
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