Same old bad habit dooms Penguins in 3-2 loss to Bruins

The Penguins just can not get out of the habit of allowing the first shot they see from the opponent to go into the back of their net. The same could be said in Saturday's loss to the Bruins as their first shot of the game was a David Pastrnak breakaway and he beat Alex Nedeljkovic easily.

The Penguins never recovered from that as they trailed 2-0 after the first period and ended up dropping another game 3-2 in front of their home fans. The Penguins also just can never seem to solve the Bruins anyway.

First Period

As previously stated, this period started just about how Penguins fans are always used to. Allowing a goal early in the game and on the first shot. Pastrnak went in alone on a bad Matt Grzelcyk pinch and beat Nedeljkovic and the Bruins jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead.

And then a few minutes later Evgeni Malkin took a penalty that he obviously did not agree with as he yelled some redacted words at the referees. And the Bruins made him pay as Mason Lohrei found twine and it was 2-0 Bruins.

The Penguins also squandered a 5-on-3 in the first period as they did not shoot the puck much and that was a killer in this game.

Second Period

There was not much to report on at all i this period as there was one penalty on the Bruins John Beecher at 9:48 for tripping. But as has been the case lately, the Penguins again did not take advantage and came up empty.

The Penguins powerplay has really been struggling as of late and if they had converted on any of these chances they had had in the first two periods, they might have come away with two points.

Third Period

This period is really where it picked up as Erik Karlsson intefered with David Pastrnak on a breakaway early in the period and Pastrnak was award a penalty shot.

Pastrnak did not make it count as Nedeljkovic stuck with him and stuffed him to keep it a 2-0 Bruins lead.

The Penguins finally came alive late in the third period while on the penalty kill as they were killing a penalty to Blake Lizotte. Kevin Hayes found Beauvillier as he beat Joonas Korpisalo and the Penguins were finally on the board.

The Penguins had one more big opportunity to tie the game up as Bruins Cole Koepke high sticked Rickard Rakell and Rakell drew blood. The Penguins had a 4 minute powerplay with 1:34 left down by one. But they had trouble finding the equalizer as Charlie Coyle hit the empty net for the Bruins to make it a 3-1 game.

But the Penguins said not so fast as Rickard Rakell found the back of the net on the powerplay and made it a 3-2 game with 22 seconds left. But that was all she wrote from PPG Paints Arena as the Bruins took the 2 points in this one.