Penguins' defense falters in loss to Bruins

The opening period of Saturday’s road game against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden bore all the traits of the basic formula that have made the Penguins’ successful in recent weeks.

Claim an early lead.

Get an offensive from a role player.

Play stout defense in the immediate vicinity of the net.

And have the goaltender make routine saves.

Twenty minutes into this contest, the Penguins had embarked on a familiar route in pursuit of another victory.

Unfortunately for them, the final 40 minutes resembled Route 30 after a landslide in an ice storm.

The Bruins swarmed the Penguins’ zone, particularly around the crease, and erupted for five goals in the second period. That surge was too much for the Penguins to overcome as they lost 7-5. It was a season-high for goals against.

“It just boils down to details,” coach Mike Sullivan said via video conference. “Some of the details got away from us (Saturday), mostly in the second period, and that’s why we gave up the types of chances that we gave up.”

The defeat snapped a five-game winning streak. Beyond that, the contest strayed from what the Penguins have cited as a driving factor in their otherwise strong play in recent weeks.

Namely, defense directly near their own cage.

Much of the Bruins’ offense in the second period came off of chances within the range of a garage door remote.

After Penguins forward Mark Janowkski opened the scoring 3 minutes, 24 seconds into regulation with his third goal of the season, the Bruins’ blitz began early in the second period.

Only 11 seconds in, Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron intercepted a clearing attempt and ripped a wrister from the right circle of the offensive zone for his 11th goal.

That was followed 34 seconds later by Bruins forward David Pastrnak cleaning up a rebound from the left circle for his 15th goal.

Goals by forwards Jake Guentzel — his 16th at the 2:45 mark of the second — and Jared McCann — his ninth on a power-play chance at 5:11 — put the Penguins up 3-2. But the Bruins persisted.

The score was tied 3-3 at 14:56 of the second thanks to Brad Marchand collecting his 15th goal on a wrister from the left of the crease. A tap-in power-play score by forward David Krejci — his second from the right of the blue paint — restored a lead for the Bruins, 4-3, at 18:29.

Marchand scored at again on a wrister from the slot to make it a 5-3 game late in the second at the 19:40 mark.

“We just weren’t getting to sticks, or guys were getting away from us or we were just losing our man in front of the net,” defenseman Cody Ceci said. “That’s where a lot of their goals came from. … Can’t give up that many chances in the slot.”

The Penguins opened the scoring in the third with Ceci getting his third goal at the 4:38 mark. But the Bruins respond when Pastrnak scored again on a two-on-one rush at the 13:28 mark.

Penguins forward Sidney Crosby got his 15th goal of the season at 18:45 of the third period on a rare short-handed score — his first since Nov. 27, 2010 — but victory was secured when Marchand completed a hat trick only 14 seconds later on an empty netter.

Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith made 21 saves on 27 shots.

“Definitely, we’ve got to be harder at our net front,” Jankowski said. “Recently, when we’ve been doing well, that’s something that we’ve taken a lot of pride in. … Being able to protect our goalie, get sticks, get bodies and unfortunately we weren’t as good at that tonight, and they got a couple of goals off of it.”

Notes: After dressing as the backup in Saturday’s game, goaltender Maxime Lagace was assigned to the taxi squad. Forwards Justin Almeida and defenseman Will Reilly were recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League and assigned to the taxi squad, and rookie forward Radim Zohorna was transferred from the taxi squad to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.