The Pens avoided a third-period meltdown against the Boston Bruins for the first time this season and held on to win, 3-2.
The Pens scored in the first period as Zbynek Michalek stopped a puck and sent it down the ice to Jordan Staal, who passed to Matt Cooke and on to Chris Kunitz, who tipped it in. Pittsburgh added another quick goal by Pascal Dupuis early in the second period.
After that, though, the momentum shifted quickly, and Dennis Seidenberg and Michael Ryder scored second-period goals for the Bruins to tie the score at 2-2. Early in the third period, though, Staal won a faceoff in the Bruins’ zone and quickly scored to give the Pens the lead.
And then … well, if you’re a Pens fan, you held your breath. The Bruins didn’t manage to score again, and it’s a miracle they didn’t, because they were all over Marc-Andre Fleury in the second half of the third period and even got a couple of pucks by him that nonetheless didn’t make it past the line. The Pens won, 3-2, as their third-period lead held. Fleury had 44 saves, 20 of them in the third period.