BOSTON (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored his 499th career regular-season goal as the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied from a two-goal deficit and beat the Boston Bruins 4-2 on Tuesday night.
Danton Heinen scored twice in a span of 28 seconds in the second period and Crosby added another score with 7:07 left in the frame, moving him within one goal of joining Washington’s Alex Ovechkin as the only active players to score 500 goals in the regular season.
Tristan Jarry stopped 43 shots for the Penguins, and Bryan Rust scored into an empty net with 1:29 left in the third as Pittsburgh snapped a four-game winless streak.
David Pastrnak scored twice for the Bruins, who outshot the Penguins 45-25 but couldn’t get anything past Jarry after the first period.
Jarry kept the Penguins close with six of his 15 saves in the final two minutes of the period, including a stop on Brad Marchand from just outside the crease during a flurry of shots coming from the Bruins as they tried to take a 3-0 lead.
Pittsburgh quickly erased the 2-0 deficit on a pair of goals by Heinen. Heinen got a backhand around Swayman 4:18 into the second, then scored again from the right circle on a wrist shot that Swayman got a piece of but couldn’t control. The puck bounced up and behind Swayman’s head, then he knocked it in with his glove hand.
Crosby put Pittsburgh up 3-2 at 12:53 of the second after Rust hit the side of the goal with a shot, then took the puck behind the net for a quick pass to Crosby for a one-timer.
Pastrnak scored his 23rd of the season 2:01 into the game. Patrice Bergeron, who had just been denied on a blocker save by Jarry, saved the puck from going out at the blue line and got it back to Hall, who dropped it down to Pastrnak for a one-timer.
Pastrnak scored again with 4:26 left in the first when he batted a rebound out of the air for his 24th after a hard wrist shot from Taylor Hall handcuffed Jarry.
NOTES: Crosby needs one more goal to become the 46th player in NHL history to score 500 regular-season goals. …Swayman got the start after being recalled from Providence of the AHL on Monday and Tuukka Rask sidelined for the week with a lower-body injury. Coach Bruce Cassidy said Rask wouldn’t practice and be re-evaluated this weekend or early next week. … The Penguins were without center Evgeni Malkin, who was placed on the COVID-19 protocol list Monday and will also miss Thursday night’s game at Ottawa. Malkin just made his season debut Jan.11 and carried a nine-game point streak into the All-Star break. … Bergeron skated gingerly toward the bench after getting tangled up with Crosby and slamming hard into the boards midway through the third period.
UP NEXT
Penguins: Visit Ottawa on Thursday night.
Bruins: Host Carolina on Thursday night.
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