Rask leads Bruins past Penguins

BOSTON --Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask made a season-high 41 saves and forward David Pastrnak scored two goals in a 5-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden on Wednesday.
Jimmy Hayes, Landon Ferraro and Brad Marchand had goals for Boston (33-22-6), which was outshot 42-29 but won for the second time in its past six home games (2-3-1) and moved into third place in the Atlantic Division.

"At the beginning, we were kind of tight a little bit," Rask said. "We were trying, but we were just not making plays. We were kind of nervous, I guess, would be the right word. But in the third period especially, I thought we managed the situation more. Even though they had a couple chances, we never panicked. We just capitalized on our own chances and it resulted in five goals, which is great."
Tom Kuhnhackl scored and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves for Pittsburgh (30-21-18).
"I thought we had some good chances," said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who had three shots on goal. "I mean, they're definitely good defensively, but we had 40 shots. I mean, we had some really good scoring chances, so I think the fact that you get those you're happy to get them. You've got to find a way to put them in. It was probably more Rask on a bunch of them, yeah."

The Penguins outshot the Bruins 13-10 in the first period, but Pastrnak's first career penalty shot at 16:00 was the only goal. Pastrnak got behind Pittsburgh defenseman Derrick Pouliot in a race for David Krejci's pass. Pouliot hauled down Pastrnak, but the latter beat Fleury with a wrist shot low to the glove side on the penalty shot.
It was the Bruins' third goal in three penalty shot attempts this season (Marchand has the other two).
"It was first in my mind right away: shoot five-hole," Pastrnak said. "Because I had four [shootout attempts] last season and I didn't score any of them. So I kind of been nervous and didn't know what to do. And I stick with my first thing on my mind and happy it went in."
Pastrnak doubled the lead 3:12 into the second period after a giveaway in front of the net by Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta. Pastrnak intercepted the puck, skated across the slot and beat Fleury after the goaltender went down.
It took Pittsburgh 55 seconds to get back within 2-1. Kuhnhackl drove the net for a rebound of Oskar Sundqvist's shot and deflected the puck past Rask off his right skate at 4:07. After video review, the goal was confirmed because it was determined there was no distinct kicking motion.
Sundqvist's assist was his first NHL point.

Hayes put the Bruins ahead 3-1 at 10:34 of the third period after an end-to-end rush by Ryan Spooner. Hayes buried Spooner's pass after it eluded a diving Pouliot.
Ferraro scored his first goal in 30 games on a breakaway at 14:26. He won a race to Dennis Seidenberg's chip out of the zone and beat Fleury to the glove side.
Marchand scored at 15:27 to make it 5-1 after a pass from the point by defenseman Torey Krug.
The Bruins were outshot 12-11 in the third period but the chances against were from less-dangerous areas. The Bruins returned to the structure that made them successful in the past.
"Yeah, I think I really felt tonight, although we won by a fair margin there. I really felt we were tight in the first two periods," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Although our guys were really trying to do the right things out there, as far as not giving them too many chances, that kind of stuff, they were skating and they were a lot quicker than we were for the first two periods. The first [period] was a tough one, (I) told the guys to loosen up a little bit. Got a little bit better in the second. We looked more like ourselves in the third."
The Bruins swept the three-game season series from Pittsburgh and outscored the Penguins 14-3.
Boston visits the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday; the Penguins host the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.