BOSTON (AP) Brad Marchand scored his second goal of the game with 1:57 left in the third period, and the Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-4 Monday night after blowing a 3-0 lead.
David Pastrnak, Jake DeBrusk and Torey Krug also scored for Boston (11-1-2), which has won six straight. Marchand added three assists, extending his point streak to 13 games.
Dominik Kahun, Nick Bjugstad, Bryan Rust and John Marino scored for Pittsburgh. Marino’s was his first career NHL goal.
Marchand skated in down the left wing and fired a wrister that hit the far post and went into the net off the back of goalie Tristan Jarry. Krug’s one-timer from the right circle had tied it 4-4 midway into the third.
Patrice Bergeron added an empty-net goal and Jaroslav Halak made 40 saves.
The Bruins had opened a 3-0 lead on Pastrnak’s team-leading 14th goal 4:22 into the second period when Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan decided to pull starting goalie Matt Murray.
The Penguins then outshot Boston 15-4 over the remainder of the period, scoring four times to take the lead.
Kahun started the comeback when he fired a tough-angle shot into the net from near the bottom of the right circle at 5:35. Bjugstad then sliced the deficit to one 4:21 later when he broke in alone off a pass from Kris Letang and fired a wrister that caromed into the net off the right post.
Evgeni Malkin backhanded a pass from along the boards, finding Rust alone in the slot. He beat Halak with a wrister to the glove side, tying it at 15:59.
Marino, who was off for tripping, stepped onto the ice as his penalty expired, collected a loose puck near center ice, skated in on a clean breakaway and shifted to the backhand before tucking it behind Halak and pushing the Penguins in front with 2.4 seconds left in the period.
Players on Pittsburgh’s bench were jumping up and down when Marino scored to cap the huge comeback and a frustrated Halak smashed his stick off the crossbar into a couple of pieces, tossing the handle off the backboards when he was done.
Marino grew up about 45 minutes away in Easton, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard.
Marchand used a baseball-style swing to bat a loose puck out of the air and into the net, making it 2-0.
NOTES: Penguins D Brian Dumoulin flew in separately from the team and played after his wife, Kayla, gave birth Sunday to a boy the couple named Brayden. He got an assist on Bjugstad’s score. … Boston recalled F Cameron Hughes from its AHL affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island, before the game and sent F Peter Cehlarik down there. The 23-year-old Hughes made his NHL debut. He said during the morning skate that his parents were flying cross country during the day from Portland, Oregon, after watching one of his brothers play Sunday. … Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said F David Backes was at the practice facility Monday morning and was ”feeling better.” Backes didn’t play and the coach said he wouldn’t Tuesday, either. Backes collided with Ottawa F Scott Sabourin Saturday, with the players’ helmets hitting at nearly full speed. Sabourin was taken to a hospital after being taken off the ice on a stretcher. He suffered a broken nose after appearing to be knocked unconscious and falling face-first to the ice. … Boston D Charlie McAvoy left the ice bleeding from the head late in the game and Krug left with a towel to his face.
UP NEXT
Penguins: At the New York Islanders on Thursday.
Bruins: At the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday for the first meeting this season of the longtime rivals.
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