Pittsburgh Penguins keep rolling with ninth straight over Boston Bruins 5-2 -NHL Update
Pittsburgh has become without a doubt, the National Hockey League’s (NHL) most confident team as the Penguins grabbed their ninth straight victory, this time over Stanley Cup defending champions, Boston Bruins, 5-2, Sunday night, March 11, 2012, at the sold-out
CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The home team was not intimidated going up against the superstar team which so easily managed to overtake the Eastern Conference last year as Penguins dominated the match from the first period onwards.
"They're the Stanley Cup champs," said Pittsburgh forward, Pascal Dupuis. "You want to beat them, you want to put the effort (in), you want to leave your mark, you want them to remember that game. I think they felt us coming."
Arron Asham, Matt Niskanen scored two straight nearly four minutes apart at 3:24 and 7:12 respectively and James Neal capped it off with his power play goal at 18:48.
Evgeni Malkin was hot like always and assisted the last two of the opening period without having to take advantage of two out of three power play opportunities given to them by Boston.
"I don't think anyone is surprised in here," said Arron Asham. "I think everyone is confident. We know what kind of team we have."
David Krejci had two goals for Boston in the second period up until the midway mark but Chris Kunitz’ goal for the home team in the middle killed off any build up in the Bruins momentum.
Pascal Dupuis had the final say with his 18th of the 2011-2012 NHL regular season with less than four minutes remaining in the final period.
Pittsburgh head coach, Dan Bylsma, told his players’ that playing physical against Boston is the only way to win and giving the Bruins a taste of their own medicine did work out in the end.
"We came out as physical as we have been in a long time," Bylsma said. "It had an effect early on. One of the things we were wanting to do is establish our offensive zone from a physicality standpoint."
Pittsburgh does not look like they will be slowing down anytime soon as the Penguins prepare to take on top Eastern Conference rivals, New York Rangers, on Thursday.
Boston on the other hand, now on a two-game losing streak, will most likely bounce back against Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
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