The Boston Bruins rolled past the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2 on Thursday night, Nov. 5, at PPG Paints Arena, getting two goals from Pavel Zacha and contributions from four lines. The Bruins Penguins result gave Boston its third straight win and moved the club to 12-4-1. Pittsburgh fell to 5-9-2, its fourth straight loss.
First period: Bruins answer Brazeau and take control
Pittsburgh opened the scoring at 9:04 of the first period when Justin Brazeau finished a feed from Maxim Lapierre and Kaedan Korczak for his first goal of the season. It was Brazeau’s first goal in two games after he missed the Penguins’ first 14 contests with a lower-body injury, according to the NHL.com game recap by Wes Crosby.
Boston answered in 3:03. Zacha tied the game 1-1 at 12:07 with his fourth goal, assisted by David Pastrnak and John-Jason Peterka. Mark Kastelic put the Bruins ahead 2-1 at 15:04, his third goal, from Fabian Brunet and Tanner Jeannot. Elias Lindholm then made it 3-1 at 18:57 with an unassisted goal, his sixth of the season. Boston outshot Pittsburgh 11-5 in the opening period, per the NHL.com official game summary.
Second period: Robertson pulls Pittsburgh within one, then Boston pulls away
Nicholas Robertson cut the deficit to 3-2 at 7:57 of the second, his seventh goal, from Korczak and Blake Lizotte. Zacha restored the two-goal lead at 14:24 with his second of the night and fifth of the season, set up by Peterka and Pastrnak. Morgan Geekie extended the margin to 5-2 at 16:57 on a breakaway, his fourth goal, assisted by Hampus Lindholm. Geekie has now scored in three straight games, according to NHL.com.
Pittsburgh outshot Boston 10-9 in the second period, but the Bruins converted their chances. Evgeni Malkin returned to the Penguins lineup and finished with one shot on goal in 16:11 of ice time.
Third period: Minten seals it; Hagens leaves early
Fraser Minten capped the scoring at 8:39 of the third with his sixth goal, assisted by Geekie. Boston managed four shots in the period to Pittsburgh’s three and closed out the 6-2 win. Michael DiPietro started in place of Jeremy Swayman and stopped 16 of 18 shots for the victory. Arturs Silovs took the loss after 18 saves on 24 shots, according to the NHL.com Gamecenter and the ESPN recap.
James Hagens left the game early in the third period after a cross-check from Samuel Girard, NHL.com reported. The NHL named Zacha, Geekie and Pastrnak the three stars. Attendance was 17,316. The puck dropped at 7:08 p.m. EST and the final horn sounded at 9:30 p.m. EST.
By the numbers: possession and structure
Boston finished with a 24-18 edge in shots on goal (11-5, 9-10, 4-3 by period). The Bruins won 31 of 50 faceoffs, a 62% rate, while Pittsburgh won 19 of 50 (38%). Boston also outhit Pittsburgh 24-18 and blocked 22 shots to Pittsburgh’s 7. Both teams went 0-for-1 on the power play and took two penalty minutes each.
By TBR’s calculation from the NHL.com summary, Boston’s shot share was 57.1% (24 of 42 total shots), and the Bruins’ blocked-shot advantage of 15 (22 minus 7) limited Pittsburgh’s clean looks at DiPietro. The faceoff and block edges match what coach Marco Sturm and the players described after the game: depth and structure across four lines rather than reliance on one unit.
Sturm told NHL.com: “We’ve been deeper this year than in the past, we feel like. Every line can score and every line can be out there in any time of the game. … I think we probably caught them at the right time too, Pittsburgh. But yeah, it’s always nice to see all the goals, all the lines, contribute.”
Zacha said: “When we’re playing the right way as lines, I think we find ways… Just using guys for their skill sets, and I think every line can score, which is great.” Geekie added: “I think we rely on our structure a lot throughout the game and we kind of just wait for mistakes… There’s not really any difference between the four lines. We’re all, kind of, workers.”
Context and what’s next
The win was Boston’s third in a row and fifth in its last seven games. Pittsburgh is 0-3-1 over its last four. TBR previewed this matchup in its Bruins-Penguins preview and covered Boston’s prior win in its Bruins-Golden Knights shootout recap. For Atlantic Division positioning after the win, see TBR’s Atlantic Division standings update. The full slate is on TBR’s Boston Bruins schedule page.
Sources
- NHL.com: Wes Crosby game recap, Bruins at Penguins, Nov. 5, 2026
- NHL.com Gamecenter: Bruins at Penguins scoring summary and three stars
- NHL.com: official game summary GS020257
- ESPN: Bruins at Penguins recap
Additional sources
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