Bruins hustle past Pens

In Boston, Sidney Crosby opened the scoring for the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night to stake then to a 1-0 lead over the Bruins.

That was ll the Pens could muster in offense as Boston responded with four unanswered goals in a 4-1 win.

Patrice Bergeron scored his 20th in Bruins win – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

Jaroslav Halak made 29 saves in the win.

Halak was his busiest in the waning seconds of the middle frame when he had to make a series of saves on threatening shots with the Bruins up 2-1.

“I’m thinking hopefully they’re going to run out of time,” Halak said. “But that didn’t happen, so I just don’t know, I just tried to play the guy with the puck. Thank God he shot it because if they start making plays out there, I think that’s the hardest thing for a goalie. I just try to stay with the shooter, that’s it.”

Sean Kuraly  and Par Lindholm replied to the Crosby goal to give the Bruins the 2-1 lead.

“I think it was big,” Kuraly said. “I think when you can get contributions from up and down the lineup, I think it helps a lot. We had, I think, the whole team playing well tonight, and when we can all play and contribute I think we’re a tough team to play against.”

Patrice Bergeron potted his 20th of the season.

“Well, we don’t win the game probably without it, so those are four or five saves (by Halak at the end of the second period)  that we needed, and you know he’s been there for us all year, so for him to do it again, I’m sure he feels really good about his game and it pushed us in the right direction because we were able to come out in the third period and extend the lead,” Torey Krug said. “If he doesn’t make any of those saves it’s a different complexion of the game.”

Brad Marchand added an empty net  goal.

“I don’t think we were good enough tonight,” Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist said. “I don’t think we had the jump that we normally have, so we didn’t make as many clean plays, we didn’t control territory like we’re capable. But it starts with puck battles, you have to win puck battles.”

[WATCH: All Penguins vs. Bruins highlights]

Tristan Jarry made 26 saves in the loss.

“There were points where we got outplayed,” Crosby said. “We definitely had some chances and could have gotten back in the game. Look at our power play, and zone time in general, they controlled more. We just weren’t good enough tonight.”