Jan 7, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron (left) and defenseman Torey Krug (47) celebrate after Bergeron scored the game winning goal in overtime against Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (29) at the CONSOL Energy Center. Boston won 3-2 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Just one day after Charlie Jacobs vocalized his disappointment in the performance of the 2014-2015 Boston Bruins, Claude Julien and his team grabbed a critical two points from the Pittsburgh Penguins defeating them 3-2 in overtime. The win snapped the Bruins three game losing streak as they improved to 20-15-6, while the loss sends the Penguins to 24-10-6.

The first period saw the Penguins grab an early lead thanks to a goal by Beau Bennett, his second goal of the season. Down early captain Zdeno Chara looked to create a spark on the Bruins bench, and in the final minutes of the first period he did that by beating Marc-Andre Fleury for only his third goal of the season and first since October 18th. The late goal by Chara tied the game at 1-1 entering the second period.

Entering the second period both teams were looking to not give up another goal and falling behind once again, coming into tonight’s contest the Penguins had dropped a game to the Montreal Canadiens 4-1. It was a lockdown on both ends of the ice during the second period, for the Bruins Tuukka Rask stopped all the Penguins shots he saw in the middle period. For Fleury though he let a puck rebound to the stick of Patrice Bergeron and he sniped it past Fleury to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead heading into the final period.

Coming into the third period the Bruins knew they were a solid 20 minutes of work away from taking two points from one of the best teams in the National Hockey League and something like that would be a big morale boost especially after Jacobs comments. But like they have all season, they slipped and let the Penguins back into it. Just 14 seconds into the third period Evgeni Malkin drove down to the Bruins end of the ice and fired a slap shot that rang off the post and beat Rask for his 18th goal of the season and tying up the game at 2-2. Allowing that goal didn’t knock the Bruins out though as they battled for the remaining 19 minutes of the period and were able to get the game into overtime.

Getting at least a point from Pittsburgh can be considered a success in it of itself, but at their current state the Bruins need more than just one point. So when push came to shove, Patrice Bergeron answered the call as he’s done so many times in the past. After a wrist shot from Milan Lucic, Bergeron was able to deflect the puck in air and redirect it past Fleury and after initial discussions whether it was a high stick or not the referees concurred that the goal was good.

For the captain Zdeno Chara he indicated after the game that after a slow start by the Bruins they were able to turn up the intensity, “It’s always nice to win, especially right now, we need those points, I felt that we started the game on our heels, and after the first 5-10 minutes we kind of picked it up and played better, more puck-possession game. It was a pretty even game, I think, the whole game.”

The Bruins are right back at it Thursday night when they face the New Jersey Devils who enter with a 15-20-7 record. Puck drop is at 7:00pm and you can watch the game on NESN or listen live on 98.5 The Sports Hub.

For the Penguins they are at it again with the Canadiens this time in Montreal on Saturday night. Puck drop is at 7:00pm and can be seen on the CBC Network in Canada.

Make sure to check out this past week’s CC Podcast, and keep an eye out for another episode this coming weekend.



