Bruins bury Penguins with roaring 3rd period comeback

The Pittsburgh Penguins suffered yet another stunning third period collapse at the hands of Boston Bruins at the Consol Energy Center.

On Nov. 10 Pittsburgh held a 4-2 third period lead against Boston only to see the Bruins score five goals in the third, handing Pittsburgh an embarrassing 7-4 loss.

Tonight, the Bruins possibly topped themselves with another roaring comeback. This time it was done in much less time.

Trailing 2-0, Zdeno Chara (6) scored a power-play goal on slap shot from the right point to start the Bruins rally at the 16:37 mark in the third, and just moments later Brad Marchand (7) scored 12 seconds later to tie the game at 2-2 off a defensive breakdown by Pittsburgh.

The Penguins No. 1 ranked penalty kill unit was put to the task and Jordan Staal was called for holding with 2:08 remaining in the third and former Penguin Mark Recchi (8) gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead with his 200th career power-play goal, putting in a Dennis Seidenberg rebound past Marc Andre Fleury with under one minute to play.

Gregory Campbell added an empty net goal with 8 seconds left to cap off four unanswered goals in just 3:15 for Boston.

Recchi’s game winner and 8th goal of the season was his first career goal against Penguins goaltender Marc Andre Fleury.

The Penguins were outshot 32-25 in the game and 13-2 in the third period but took control of the game getting second period goals from Mike Rupp (4) who beat Tuuka Rask short side for his 4th goal of the season at the 11:49 mark of the second period.

Pittsburgh quickly struck again with with Recchi off for tripping and Kris Letang made it 2-0 on the power play for his 7th goal of the season. Malkin and Martin assisted on the goal with Martin collecting his 150th career assist. Malkin record his first power play point in 10 games on the goal.

Pittsburgh went 1-for-6 on the power play and came into the game with the 21st ranked power play in the NHL.

Tuukka Rask made 23 saves to improve to 4-8-1 on the season. Marc Andre Fleury took the loss, making 28 saves and falling to 18-11-2 on the season.

Pittsburgh was without Sidney Crosby, the NHL’s leading goal scorer for the third straight game and fell to 0-2-1 without Crosby this season. The Penguins are 21-13-8 all-time without Crosby.

With the loss, the Penguins have lost 5 of their last 6 and are 5-6-2 since winning 12 in a row.

The Penguins scratched Sidney Crosby (concussion), Arron Asham (illness) and Ben Lovejoy (healthy). Eric Godard has been placed on injured reserve.