Tristan Jarry made 30 saves and Rickard Rakell scored for Pittsburgh (9-12-4), which has won two straight.
“Coming down to a tight game in the last period, I guess the whole game, was really good for our whole group,” Jarry said. “From top to bottom, just blocking shots, keeping pucks down low, holding onto pucks. I think we held momentum most of the game, and I think that’s what really helped us down the stretch.”
Charlie Coyle scored, and Swayman made 34 saves for Boston (11-11-3), which has lost two of three.
“It was a couple of different areas where we weren’t at our best tonight,” Bruins coach Joe Sacco said. “One was our execution seemed to be a little bit off at times. And then we just had a couple of missed assignments, and they’re a good offensive team, we talked about that before the game. Certainly, they still have some high-end talent over there, and they’ll make you pay if you miss assignments.”
Coyle gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 1:24 of the first period. Penguins defenseman Jack St. Ivany misplayed a pass at Boston’s blue line, and Trent Frederic found Coyle in the right circle with plenty of space.
“You jump out to an early lead, two or three goals, [or] you’re down one, two, three goals, it’s how do you bring that next shift, that focus,” Coyle said. “And it seemed like we kind of eased up that way. Then you stop putting the puck in behind them, that’s when we’re getting our chances.”
Rakell tied it 1-1 at 19:59 of the second period. Sidney Crosby picked up a loose puck behind the goal line and cycled behind the net before feeding Rakell in front to beat the buzzer.
“We just wanted to create something quick, only 20 seconds to go there,” Rakell said. “Throwing pucks at the net … Sid was able to find me in the middle, and yeah it was, I think, momentum-changing for everyone into the third period.”