PITTSBURGH — In a wild battle of teams clad in black and gold it was the Pittsburgh Penguins (32-17-14) erasing a three-goal deficit to down the Boston Bruins (35-23-5), 5-4 on the strength of two goals from Anthony Mantha and an overtime tally from Tommy Novak. The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Penguins and kept them one point ahead of the idle New York Islanders for second place in the Metropolitan Division. Per NHL PR, the last time the Penguins recorded a three-goal comeback without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in their lineup (regular season or playoffs) was Feb. 10, 2001.

The Bruins kicked off the scoring when they got their first power play opportunity of the game and took full advantage. After a failed clearing attempt by Ryan Shea, the Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy was able to keep the puck in at the point and throw a cross-ice pass to Morgan Geekie at the top off the left circle. Before you could blink the puck was off Geekie’s stick, across the crease and onto the stick of Pavel Zacha (17) positioned in the middle of the right circle. Zacha then quickly wristed the puck through the five hole of Penguins’ netminder Arturs Silovs who attempted to go post-to-post, but appeared to be off balance as the puck traveled between his legs. The goal came at 9:27 to give the Bruins an early 1-0 lead, but it would not be the last time the Penguins heard from Zacha.

The Penguins’ best chance of their nine shots in the first came on a pointblank shot from Noel Acciari with 53 seconds left in the period, but he rang a wrister off the right post and the Bruins to took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. It was actually Acciari’s second post shot of the period.

With 11:13 left in the second it was Zacha (18) striking again. Despite the Penguins outnumbering the Bruins down low, somehow Viktor Arvidsson, positioned along the right boards, was able to find a streaking Zacha who took the Arvidsson pass in stride, drew Silovs out of position and then backhanded the puck over the Penguins’ netminder to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins lead stretched to three at 12:23 of the second when Silovs went behind his net to play the puck. As he went to swipe the puck around the boards to defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, he gave it right to Bruins forward David Pastrnak (23) who wasted no time taking the puck and shoving it on his backhand towards the vacated net. Silovs scrambled to get back, but Pasternak deflected the puck off Silovs and into the net to make it 3-0 Boston.

The Penguins finally solved Korpisalo with 5:16 left in the second period, but it took a two-man advantage to do so. Egor Chinakhov unleashed a laser of a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that scorched past Korpisalo’s glove to cut the Bruins lead to 3-1. “That release is something special,” remarked Penguins head coach Dan Muse after the game. Chinakhov now has 11 goals in 25 games with the Penguins. Since joining the Penguins on January 1, no Penguins player has more goals than his 11.

Pittsburgh would also get the next two goals to knot the game at three. The first was the result of hard work by the Penguins’ Connor Dewar (14). He rushed down the ice and beat the Bruins defenseman to the puck and then twirled around and backhanded the puck over the glove of an unsuspecting Korpisalo to pull the Penguins within one. Just 33 seconds later Anthony Mantha (22) broke in on a partial breakaway and slid the puck on the backhand through the five hole of Korpisalo to knot the game at three.

Any momentum the Penguins gained by tying the game was short-lived because Zacha (18) completed the hat trick at 8:34 of the third. Zacha found himself alone with the puck near the bottom of the left circle after an Arvidsson pass had somehow reached him through a maze of skates. Zacha wasted no time and wired a wrist shot over Silovs’ glove and just under the crossbar, putting the Bruins back ahead, 4-3.

The Penguins remained resilient and Mantha (23) struck again at 11:18 of the third. After getting hit with a Wotherspoon point shot, the puck landed at the feet of Mantha, who was able to barely push the rebound over the goal line before a sprawling Korpisalo could make the save.

There were some anxious moments for both teams when Parker Wotherspoon went off for high-sticking at 13:28 of the third. The Bruins had sustained pressure on the ensuing power play, while Acciari nearly scored short-handed, but the game remained tied after the two minutes expired.

The game remained tied at the end of regulation and the teams headed to overtime. It was the Penguins’ second trip to overtime in as many days. However, Sunday’s game would produce a much more favorable result than Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss to Philadelphia. Just 17 seconds into the extra frame Chinakhov was literally able to kick the puck over to an open Novak who gathered the puck and released a wrist shot from the slot the eluded Korpisalo and sent the Penguins to an improbable 5-4 victory.

The Penguins will try to take the momentum from Sunday’s win and take it into their upcoming five-game road trip that starts on Tuesday night in Raleigh and includes stops in Vegas, Utah, Colorado, and then back to Raleigh.

Notes

The Penguins’ lines and defensive pairings took on a different look Sunday. With Justin Brazeau out day-to-day with an upper-body injury, newcomer Elmer Soderblom made his Penguins debut. On the blue line, Connor Clifton was out and Ilya Solovyok slotted in. Evgeni Malkin was also absent from the lineup, serving the second game of his five-game suspension.

Forwards

Egor Chinakhov – Rickard Rakell – Bryan Rust

Anthony Mantha – Tommy Novak – Ville Koivunen

Elmer Soderblom – Ben Kindel – Avery Hayes

Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari

Defensemen

Parker Wotherspoon – Erik Karlsson

Ryan Shea – Kris Letang

Sam Girard – Ilya Solovyov

Scratches for the Penguins were forwards Brazeau and Kevin Hayes, and defensemen Clifton and Ryan Graves.

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