Defense, Goaltending Come Up Big; Penguins Stave Off Bruins, Win 2-1

After a big but narrow victory against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins were looking to clean up a few aspects of their game for their tilt against the Boston Bruins on Friday.

And that’s exactly what they did.

In a strong defensive effort, the Penguins edged out the Bruins, 2-1, despite a heavy push by Boston at the end of the game. Goaltender Tristan Jarry was outstanding for Pittsburgh – he stopped 31 of 32 Boston shots and stood tall in key moments – and their top two defensemen, Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang, made a few huge defensive plays to prevent goals against.

The Penguins were the better team throughout the majority of this game, and it was, arguably, their most complete effort of the season. They also scored at key times, as Rickard Rakell potted his team-leading ninth goal of the season with 0.8 seconds remaining in the second period to tie the game, and newcomer Philip Tomasino capitalized on his sixth shot of the game to put the Penguins ahead in the third.

The Penguins did surrender an early goal to Boston on just their second shot of the game, but they buckled down and played a strong game the rest of the way.

“I think we did a great job tonight just responding,” Jarry said. “I thought we carried momentum a lot of the night, and just getting that goal at the end of the (second) period I think really helped and gave our group a big boost, and I think we were able to continue on from that momentum.”

Head coach Mike Sullivan was pleased with the way his team performed.

“I think there’s a lot to like about it,” Sullivan said. “We were in a one-goal hockey game, I thought we defended hard, I thought we were above the puck most of the night. I thought we did a pretty good job controlling territory.”

He added: “There’s a price to pay to win. I thought our guys worked really hard tonight, and I thought we paid it.”

Here are some thoughts and observations from Friday’s win:

– The first line was, once again, a spark plug for the Penguins…