Goals by Rust, Johnson help Pittsburgh rally past Bruins
PITTSBURGH » Jack Johnson’s goal into his own net was one of the low points of a forgettable first period for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Johnson’s short-handed slap shot later in the game helped the Penguins complete another memorable comeback.
Johnson and Bryan Rust scored third-period goals as Pittsbugh rallied to defeat the Boston Bruins 4-3 Sunday afternon.
Pittsburgh came back from a three-goal deficit for the third time this season. It’s the second time in franchise history — 200809 was the first — that the Penguins have had three three-goal comebacks in a season.
“Getting down 3-0 isn’t what we had in mind,” Johnson said. “We’ve been able to come back before, but that’s not a recipe for success.”
Dominik Simon and Teddy Blueger also scored for the Penguins, who have won six of their last seven games.
Sidney Crosby has points in four straight games since returning from core muscle surgery. Crosby, who had two assists Sunday, has three goals and eight points after missing the previous
28 games.
Matt Murray rebounded from a shaky start to make
34 saves for Pittsburgh. Murray, who won his fifth straight game, made consecutive starts for the first time since November.
“We didn’t say a whole lot,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of his team’s poor start. “I just didn’t feel it was necessary to state the obvious that we didn’t have the start that we wanted. I did say that we had a lot of hockey left and we had to respond the right way.”
David Pastrnak scored his 37th goal, and Patrice Bergeron scored his
21st and Anders Bjork his eighth for Boston. Jaroslav Halak made 18 saves for the Bruins, who are winless in their last six visits to Pittsburgh.
Pastrnak has 11 goals and 24 points in his last 17 games. He’s the first Bruins player with 70 points in 50 or fewer games since Cam Neely and Adam Oates in
1993-94.
Pastrnak gave the Bruins a 3-0 lead at 15:07 of the first period, when he sent the puck to the front of the net, and it went in off Johnson’s stick.
It was just the second time since 2010-11 that the Bruins lost in regulation after leading by three or more goals. Boston was 2001-6 in that scenario, with the lone loss coming April
4, 2011, when the Bruins scored the first three goals before the New York Rangers scored the next five unanswered.
Johnson tied this game at
3 with a short-handed goal
1:41 into the third. He beat Halak to the blocker side with a slap shot from the top of the circle.
Rust gave Pittsburgh a
4-3 lead when he scored his 21st goal of the season at 12:35 of the third. Evgeni Malkin’s pass from behind the net set up Rust in the slot.
HURRICANES 2, ISLANDERS 1 » Justin Williams returned to the lineup and scored in the shootout to lift Carolina over New York.
James Reimer stopped six shots in the tiebreaker for Carolina, the last against Anders Lee to lock up the win. Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen also scored in the shootout for the Hurricanes. Svechnikov had a goal in the first period.
The Hurricanes ended a three-game skid thanks to Williams, the 38-yearold who took an extended break after leading Carolina to last year’s Eastern Conference final. He scored in the eighth round of the shootout.
Lee scored in regulation, and Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier connected in the shootout for New York, but the Islanders lost their third straight.
Reimer made 26 saves, none bigger than denying Barzal on a breakaway with
2:51 left in the third period. Thomas Greiss turned away 31 shots for New York and was particularly sharp in the third period. He stopped Carolina’s Ryan Dzingel midway through the period on a closerange shot and then saved Joel Edmundson’s try with
1:59 left.
Lee had two prime chances in the second period but was denied by Reimer. Finally, Lee was able to finish a rebound with 55 seconds left in the period. BLUE JACKETS 2, RANGERS 1 » Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his second goal of the game with 26.5 seconds left to lift Columbus over New York for their fifth straight win.
Bjorkstrand was playing for the first time after
13 games with an oblique injury. He tied it 6:08 into the third period, then put the winner past goalie Igor Shesterkin for his 14th goal of the season.
Columbus rookie Matiss Kivlenieks made his first NHL start and stopped 31 shots. The surging Blue Jackets are 15-2-4 since Dec. 9. They are also 8-1-3 in their last 12 road games.