BOSTON (AP) — Torey Krug scored 34 seconds into overtime and the Boston Bruins beat Pittsburgh 4-3 on Monday night, snapping a seven-game, regular-season losing streak to the Penguins in a matchup of the Eastern Conference’s top two teams.
Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby had scored with 0.3 seconds left in regulation to tie it.
Krug won it with a shot from the left circle.
Loui Eriksson and Reilly Smith scored first-period goals, and Zdeno Chara made it 3-2 with 5:15 left in regulation for the conference-leading Bruins, who are 8-2-1 in their last 11 games. Tuukka Rask made 28 saves for Boston, which beat the Penguins for the first time since December 2011.
Pittsburgh salvaged a point after goalie Marc-Andre Fleury for an extra skater. Chris Kunitz fired a desperation backhander on net, and Crosby — at the edge of the crease — deflected the puck across the goal line behind Rask just as the green light went on.
A video review clearly showed that the puck went in before time ran out.
James Neal scored the first two goals for Pittsburgh, and Fleury made 20 saves. The Penguins, playing their third game in five days, lost for the sixth time in 10 games.
It was the first meeting in Boston since the Bruins completed a sweep of the Penguins in last season’s conference finals.
Neal lifted the Penguins into a 2-2 tie with a rising wrist shot from the left circle that beat Rask under the crossbar with 8:51 left in the third.
Despite being outshot 10-1 in the opening nine minutes of the game, Boston held a 2-0 lead after the first period. Both goals were set up by Carl Soderberg.
Eriksson’s goal was a highlight play by the winger. He took a pass from Soderberg that was a little behind him near the Penguins blue line. He pushed the puck between his legs to his forehand, broke in alone, and tucked a backhander between Fleury’s pads.
Smith’s power play goal made it 2-0 just 3:16 later. The Penguins hadn’t allowed a power-play goal in six games, but Smith, cutting to the net, one-timed a pass out of the right corner from Soderberg nine seconds after Pascal Dupuis was sent off for hooking.
After Smith’s score, the crowd broke into chants of ‘Fleury! Fleury!’
Pittsburgh cut it to 2-1 just 37 seconds into the second period when Neal fired a wrist shot from the slot that beat Rask stick side.
Notes: Former Penguins star Mario Lemieux was at the game. … Pittsburgh beat Boston 3-2 at home on Oct. 30. The teams will meet one more time this season — on Dec. 7 in Boston. … The Bruins played highlights of New England’s comeback win Sunday night over the Denver Broncos before showing Patriots WR Julian Edelman, who watched the game from a luxury box, on the screen. … Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid (8th straight) and Dennis Seidenberg (3rd) were out with lower-body injuries. … The Bruins scored first for the eighth time in 10 games. … Penguins C Evgeni Malkin entered the game tied for the NHL lead in assists with San Jose’s Joe Thornton. He earned his 23rd on Neal’s goal.