Penguins pound Bruins 5-2

Boston Bruins goalie Marty Turco, left, makes the save on a second-period breakaway by Pittsburgh Penguins' Jordan Staal (11) during an NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, March 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Another bad start. Another 2-goal hole early and then turned to a 3-goal hole. Another game with players going down (three Bruins). Another loss for the Bruins (now two in a row). It feels like that's all I've been posting lately, Bruins fall behind, try to come back but fail to and lose the game. Well that's what happened this afternoon against the Pittsburgh Penguins as the Bruins fell behind 2-0 before it even reached halfway through the period. It would later be 4-1 and eventually the game would end 5-2. The Penguins outplayed and outhit the Bruins and deserved to win the game. During the game, the Bruins lost three players to injuries, Adam McQuaid (upper body after collision with James Neal), Max Sauve (lower body injury, playing in his 1st NHL game) and Patrice Bergeron (blocked shot, maybe knee or leg injury). Johnny Boychuk was also shaken up after a hit from behind into the boards by Evgeni Malkin. Boychuk went off the ice and to the dressing room but returned shortly. Malkin only received a 2-minute minor penalty for boarding from behind. I'm not sure why he didn't get a 5-minute major and game misconduct. You would hope the league would suspend Malkin for a dirty hit like this but who knows if they'll even talk to Malkin about the hit. If it was the other way around where a Bruins player hit Malkin, you could no doubt bet the league would be suspending the Bruins player. The injury bug has bit the Bruins hard here late in the season. They'll have to deal with it and fight out the rest of the season to keep their playoff spot.

Quick game summary
In the first period, the Penguins scored three goals, the third on a 5-on-3 power-play.

In the second period, Marty Turco came in and played net for Tim Thomas. Turco would play the rest of the game and play quite well for his first NHL game action this season. David Krejci scored his 19th goal of the season, making it 3-1. Less than three minutes later, Chris Kunitz scored for the Penguins making it 4-1. Krejci later scored his 20th goal of the season, making it 4-2.

In the third period, Pascal Dupuis scored to make it 5-2 Penguins.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 36-32. The Penguins led the game in faceoff wins 32-24, hits 21-12 and blocked shots 14-10.

The Bruins went 0-for-2 on the power-play while the Penguins went 1-for-2.

Tim Thomas only played the first period and made 7 saves on 10 shots. Marty Turco played the rest of the game and made 20 saves on 22 shots. Thomas is now 29-17-0 with a 2.37 GAA and a .922 save percentage so far this season. Marty Turco with 40 minutes played has a 3.00 GAA and a .909 save percentage.

Andrew Ference returned to the lineup so Greg Zanon and Mike Mottau were scratched. Benoit Pouliot was out to Max Sauve played in his first NHL game.

After the game, Claude Julien when asked if Malkin may be suspended for boarding Boychuk: "It was Malkin, right? It wasn't [Matt] Cooke? It was Malkin." Source

David Krejci had 2 goals while Milan Lucic and Tyler Seguin both had 2 assists each.

David Krejci lead the Bruins with 5 shots.

Zdeno Chara was a -3.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 40-25-3 with 83 points. The next game for the Bruins is on Tuesday at the Tampa Bay Lightning at 7:30pm ET.