Penguins/Bruins Recap: Tomasino’s third period goal lifts Pittsburgh to win

Pittsburgh gets a second win in a row after a 2-1 victory in Boston on Friday. Newcomer Philip Tomasino made his mark with a big goal

Pregame

Owen Pickering is still sick so the Penguins are rolling with the same crew as last game. Tristan Jarry back in the net.

The home Bruins have the following groupings for this Black (and gold) Friday matchup.

First period

Each team gets a great scoring chance early. Jeremy Swayman stops the Pens. Jarry can’t do the same against a wide open Charlie Coyle. 1-0 early lead for Boston.

Nikita Zadorov gives Evgeni Malkin a lil poke from the bench, Malkin isn’t thrilled about it.

Pittsburgh is up 12-9 in shots, but down 1-0 on the scoreboard. It’s not a terrible opening period even though they had to play catch up from right off the bat.

Second period

The Pens do well in the second but can’t crack Swayman...Until the very last beat, that is. Sidney Crosby swoops around the net and puts a pass out for Rickard Rakell. Swayman has to respect the wraparound option and Rakell has the whole top half of the net to shoot at. It beats the buzzer to tie the game.

The arrow is pointing up for the visitors in this game. Pittsburgh has done well hanging tough on the road tonight and it gives themselves a chance after two periods.

Third period

New Penguin Philip Tomasino gets on the board in his second game. Tomasino wins a puck back in the offensive zone from a Bruin, then works a give-and-go with Malkin. Good shot and the youngster has his first goal with Pittsburgh. Big time third period go-ahead goal, at that.

Coyle tries to get his second goal of the game but the Pens get bailed out by a defensive play by Kris Letang.

The Bruins pull the goalie late in a push to beat the clock for themselves. Erik Karlsson makes a great defensive block (is this the holiday Twilight zone?) Letang and Jarry also pitch in. The Pens hold on for a big road win.

Some thought

• Boston scored on their second shot tonight, which means Jarry has given up a goal on the first or second shot he’s seen in 5/8 starts. Two other times he’s given up a goal by shot No. 5. Obviously, it’s good he was able to shut the door and keep it on track, and it’s not his problem that there was a defensive breakdown early but it’s wild how frequently the Pens are down early when Jarry is in there. In football they have a growing term about “game control” for not just if a team wins but how easily they are handling the opposition. In a way, it’s similar for hockey in that Jarry exhibits little control in his games. It’s not just how many saves he makes, it’s when they are made (or goals allowed) that tell the deeper story.
• That said, Jarry stopping the next 30 shots he saw and not giving up another goal all night is a great response, and one he hasn’t had too often in the other games where the red light comes on early.
• Tomasino’s acclimation period in Pittsburgh took a steep turn tonight. Team-high six shots on goal. The GWG. He’s looking the part of a pretty decent player, it’s too early to make sweeping generalizations or bold declarations but so far so good from him.
• It was nice to see the big Crosby smile after Rakell’s goal. There hasn’t been too much for him to smile about on the ice these days. The Pens are clearly still closer to one of the NHL’s worst teams than they are making the playoffs but it’s never a bad thing to have a morale boost.
• Similarly, it was great to see Letang make some contributions to a win tonight too. Haven’t seen that side of him in a long time.
• Drew O’Connor (who hasn’t scored a goal in 19 games) got promoted in place of Michael Bunting, and somehow that makes sense. Bunting is only on pace for 23 points this season so far and looks invisible more often than not. That does speak to the state of the Pens where even with some promise and fun of Tomasino getting a look, the amount of skill and productive forwards on the team is woefully lacking.
• The Pettersson/Karlsson expected goal tally tonight, per Moneypuck: 1.99 for, 0.57 against. Actual goal tally: 2-0. Great job by them, unblocked shot attempts were 25-7, Karlsson’s mini-renaissance continued for another day. If it keeps going and he can maintain the difference-making edge (in a good way), the wins could keep rolling along too.
• 0 for 2 power play night means that Pittsburgh’s four-game PP goal streak is now history.

It’s a modest two-game winning streak for the Pens, and they’ll get a chance quickly to extend it. Calgary lost 5-2 to Columbus today, the Flames will head to the ‘Burgh for a game tomorrow night.