Philip Tomasino scored his first goal of the season in the third period to propel the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins to a 2-1 comeback win over the Boston Bruins on Friday.
A 23-year-old former first-round pick who was acquired from the Nashville Predators in a deal on Monday, Tomasino netted the go-ahead goal with 12:34 left in regulation. He gathered Evgeni Malkin’s pass out of the corner and wristed home a shot that beat Boston netminder Jeremy Swayman five-hole from the bottom of the left circle.
Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry, who entered the game with an .868 save percentage on the season, stopped 31 of Boston’s 32 shots (.969). Twelve of his saves came in the third period
Rickard Rakell scored the first goal for the Penguins en route to their second straight win.
Charlie Coyle scored and Swayman made 34 saves for Boston, which is now 3-2-0 under interim head coach Joe Sacco.
Minutes after Tomasino’s winning goal, Kris Letang’s sliding block helped Jarry regain his positioning to make a key stop on Coyle’s attempt to stuff the puck inside the left post.
A Jarry stop against David Pastrnak during a Boston power play with 6:36 remaining and another with Swayman pulled in the final minute helped secure the final result.
Coyle needed only 1:24 of first-period time to net the game’s opening goal. Tyler Johnson picked up the puck off Pittsburgh defenseman Jack St. Ivany’s fanned pass, led the rush up ice and fed Trent Frederic, who dished cross-ice to set up the Coyle finish on a wrist shot from the right circle.
Despite being outshot 12-9, Boston maintained its 1-0 lead entering the first intermission in large part due to Swayman making key saves less than a minute after Coyle scored. A stop on Sidney Crosby’s two-on-one rush with Bryan Rust began the flurry.
Facing an even busier workload in the middle frame, Swyaman made a flashing glove save on Anthony Beauvillier near the midway point, but Rakell found the tying goal with only 0.8 seconds left before intermission.
After Crosby won a point shot back to Erik Karlsson for a point shot that sailed just wide, the Pittsburgh captain recovered the puck as he circled the net and slid a backhand pass to Rakell in front, where he scored Pittsburgh’s first goal into a near-open net.
–Field Level Media
