Bruins / Penguins Game 2 Recap: B’s Corral The Pens.

So before this series, I said that the Bruins would have to play ultra-tough defensive hockey if they ever hoped to contain the Penguins and Sydney Crosby and win. Or I meant to say that. One of those two things. Well, that’s what they did tonight. The problem is that the Penguins didn’t really appear to be willing to play hockey with them. Boston scored early on a Crosby turnover and never really looked back after that. Tomas Vokoun was pulled after he gave up his third goal of the first period, and the Penguins scored a quick one to give fans in Pittsburgh hope of a comeback. But then Boston scored again with seconds remaining in the period and pretty much put that to a stop.

That was pretty much the end of the game. The B’s put a few more past Marc-Andre Fleury just to show that they hadn’t forgotten that there was a contest going on, but the Penguins and their fans all pretty much checked out of this one halfway through the night. I know this is only the second game of the series, but this frankly was just a little shocking. The Bruins played the exact sort of game that they wanted to, and the Penguins played almost no game at all. Pittsburgh fans didn’t really even stick around to boo, and the building was half-empty as the third period wound down. There is no way that the Bruins can expect the Penguins to keep up this sort of lackluster effort when the series resumes in Boston on Wednesday, they’re way too good and have too much pressure on them to go out like this. Still, the Bruins played the exact sort of hockey they need to play in order to win this series, and have put a good Penguins team in a 2-0 hole as the series heads home to Boston.
Game 3 is this Wednesday in Boston and starts at 7 instead of 8. If the Bruins can win this next one, even a team like the Penguins should have an immense amount of difficulty overcoming a 3-0 deficit. Tune in.