Krejci's Hat Trick Leads The Way In Route Of Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins are without starting goaltender Matt Murray and the Boston Bruins took full advantage of his absence by pounding the two-time defending champs 8-4 on national television.
The Penguins started the scoring in a crazy opening period just 35 seconds after the opening faceoff. Evgeni Malkin drew the attention of the Bruins defense along the right half-boards and he passed across to Olli Maatta in the slot where he had the time and space to rip a slap shot past Tuukka Rask.
After Casey DeSmith stopped the first shot he saw, he gave up goals on the next three; the first coming from David Krejci at 1:45.�Rick Nash came up the right side and quickly fired the puck towards the net where a hard driving Krejci knocked the puck into the Penguins net. Zdeno Chara picked up the secondary assist on Krejci's 12th goal of the year.
Just over a minute later, David Pastrnak gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead with his 23rd goal as his shot from the slot hit Justin Schultz and hopped over DeSmith.�The puck slowly trickled over the goal line as DeSmith had no clue that it was behind him.� Brad Marchand and Riley Nash picked up the assists.
Rick Nash extended the lead with a power play goal at 5:27 to chase DeSmith from the game.� After getting the puck out from behind the net, Nash set up shop at the side of the goal where he tapped home pass from Torey Krug.� Marchand had the second assist on Nash's 20th goal of the season and second with the Bruins. Tristan Jarry entered the game while the Bruins were celebrating their third goal.�
Four minutes later, Phil Kessel got the Penguins back into the game with a shorthanded tally.� Kessel got to a loose puck right on the goal line and banked it off of Rask and into the Bruins net to cut the lead in half.�
The momentum did not last long as Jarry gave up a soft goal to David Backes at 12:49. Backes fired a shot from below the right dot that somehow beat Jarry to the far side.� Brian Gionta picked up his first point with the lone assist on Backes's 11th goal of the season.
Krug extended the Boston lead to 5-2 at the 16:07 mark by one-timing a pass from Pastrnak at the left point through heavy traffic and in behind Jarry.�Riley Nash was credited with the secondary assist on Krug's 11th goal of the season.�
Shortly after Krug's tally, Carter Rowney appeared to score a third Penguins goal, but after a quick review it was taken off the scoreboard due to kicking it into the net.
Riley Sheahan's unassisted goal eventually made it 5-3 with just 3.2 seconds remaining in the first period.� Moments after blocking a Charlie McAvoy shot, Sheahan drive up the left side and beat Rask to the short side from the dot.�
The first period saw 14 different players pick up a point with six getting multiple points.
The craziness carried over into the second period as Krejci scored on the power play just over two minutes in.� Nick Holden found Krejic at the side of the net from the point and the veteran center quickly buried the feed past Jarry.�
The game settled down for a bit as it took just about 12 minutes for Krecji to complete the hat trick with another power play tally.� This time, Gionta got to the rebound off a Charlie McAvoy shot over to Krejci at the side of the goal where backhand/forehand before roofing the puck into a wide-open net.� Holden picked up another point with the secondary assist.�This was Krejci's fourth career hat trick and his first since 2014.�
Pastrnak capped off the Bruins scoring with just over two minutes remaining in the second period.�Chara found Pastrnak all alone in front of the net and he quickly fired the pass into past Jarry for his second goal of the night.
Maatta scored his second goal of the night about five minutes into the third period with a little help as his shot from the point hit off Riley Nash and then Brandon Carlo's hand before getting in behind Rask.
In the end, 12 of the 18 skaters dressed tonight picked up a point and nine different Bruins players had multiple points on the evening.�This was their first eight-goal game since they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 8-0 on March 19, 2012.�
�The Bruins will be back in action when they host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday afternoon.
