The Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins enter their Thursday night matchup after playing their share of one-goal games lately.
The Bruins arrive in Pittsburgh off a win in both overtime and a shootout, while the Penguins have gone 1-2-1 over four straight games decided by a single tally.
Both teams played the Vegas Golden Knights in their most recent game, with Boston pulling out a 3-2 shootout win on Monday and Pittsburgh allowing a pair of third-period goals in a 3-2 loss the following night.
Boston lost a 2-0 lead against Vegas, but captain David Pastrnak scored the shootout winner after Jeremy Swayman followed a 21-save performance by stopping all three of the Golden Knights’ shootout attempts. James Hagens, on the eve of his 20th birthday, and Morgan Geekie each scored a goal in regulation.
“There’s no quit out there,” Hagens said. “Even when we face adversity, we are able to come back.”
Hagens is tied for first among NHL rookies — and second on the Bruins — with six goals. Pastrnak leads the team with eight.
Though the game reached overtime, Bruins coach Marco Sturm liked the way that his team performed compared to its back-to-back losses to the Carolina Hurricanes and St. Louis Blues last week.
“I think we were due for a detailed game like that, a structured game like (Monday’s) because I feel like we didn’t play that way for the last little while,” Sturm said.
The Bruins on Thursday could be without forward Matt Poitras, who suffered a broken nose after taking an elbow to the face from Vegas’ Braeden Bowman on Monday. He wore a bubble shield on his helmet during Wednesday’s practice.
“We’ll see. He stayed out there for the whole practice, so I guess that’s a good thing,” Sturm said of Poitras. “We’ll see how it is (at Thursday’s morning skate) and go from there.”
The Penguins, meanwhile, have allowed last-minute goals in the third period of two of their three most recent losses, including Tuesday against Vegas.
Despite falling to the Golden Knights, Tommy Novak (one goal, one assist) and Kaedan Korczak (two assists) had a hand in both of Pittsburgh’s goals. Rickard Rakell also scored, and Arturs Silovs made 20 saves.
“I think (structure) has been a focus for us the last handful of days, just staying structured,” Novak said after Tuesday’s effort. “I think (we were) probably better, but it sucks not to get the win.”
In the end, though, a loss is a loss. Coach Dan Muse’s Penguins have to find a way to finish when the game is in the balance.
“We gotta get the job done,” Muse said. “I don’t feel like it’s the exact same thing every time, but the bottom line is we have to be resilient in those (late-game) situations, and so far this year there have been too many times where we haven’t been.”
Injuries have hurt the Penguins’ lineup, though veteran forward Evgeni Malkin returned to practice as a full-contact participant after missing Tuesday’s game with a lower body ailment. Korczak (lower body) had been considered a game-time decision before skating on defense.
“(We) expect that he’ll keep going in the right direction,” Muse said of Malkin earlier this week, noting that he skated on Tuesday before taking part in the Wednesday practice.
Muse said he is optimistic about Malkin’s availability for Thursday’s game.