Bruins deal blow to Penguins' playoff hopes with 6-4 victory

The Penguins pushed back at 10:27.

Grzelcyk, who was bumped up to play with Charlie McAvoy, could not stop Drew O’Connor at the Boston blue line and O’Connor broke in on a 2-on-1, feeding Bryan Rust for a tip-in.

But Kevin Shattenkirk gave the B’s their two-goal lead back at 11:35. Pastrnak made a terrific diagonal pass from the side of the net to the defenseman, who sniped a far side shot off the back bar, his sixth.

With that, Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan pulled Nedeljkovic, who was making his 11th consecutive start, and inserted Tristan Jarry.

It wasn’t a great start for Jarry, or his teammates. On a Penguin power play, Erik Karlsson allowed Coyle to get a loose puck along the left boards in the Pittsburgh zone. He fed an open Marchand, who threw a deke at Jarry and slipped the puck through the goalie’s pads for his 29th of the year and 36th career short-handed goal at 14:54.

With the Penguins’ season on the line, they fought back and got one back on the same power play with Michael Bunting, who had gotten away with a cheap trip of Ullmark in the waning seconds of the first, redirecting a pass through Ullmark from the blue line paint at 15:52.

That at least kept the Pens in the game going into the third period.

When the Penguins took a penalty early in the period, the B’s had a chance to put the hammer down. Instead they gave Pittsburgh more life. McAvoy coughed up the puck high in the zone and O’Connor was off. He made a terrific move around Marchand on the rush and then roofed it over Ullmark’s glove at 4:32 to get them to within a goal at 4-3.

Pastrnak drew another power play shortly after that and Montgomery replaced McAvoy with Shattenkirk on the first unit, but it was no more successful.

The B’s finally gave themselves some breathing space with 5:50 left in regulation. From behind the net, Jakub Lauko set up Morgan Geekie for a one-timer, his 17th of the year, and a timely one.

Heinen then gave the B’s their three-goal lead back with an empty-netter, but Bunting scored one more with 1:21 left. It was not enough for the Pens.