Bruins Postgame: Six Goals, What Makes the Team Dangerous

November 6, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Boston Bruins keep winning, and the contributions continue to come from all over the ice.

The Bruins (12-4-1) exploded for three unanswered goals in their third straight win, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins (5-9-2) 6-2 at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night. Pavel Zacha scored twice, and Mark Kastelic, Elias Lindholm, Morgan Geekie, and Fraser Minten added one. Michael DiPietro only needed to make 16 saves for the fourth win of his NHL career.

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It is the seventh time this season that five or more Bruins scored in a win. They now have 12 players who have scored three or more goals on the season, with Kastelic joining that group on Thursday.

“It’s probably a combo [bringing it together] a little bit,” Marco Sturm said to reporters in Pittsburgh. “I think guys get used to each other, and also just the way we play too. We are deeper this year than in the past, we feel like, and every line can score, and every line can be out there [at] any time of the game. So I think that’s pretty much it.”

All four lines factored into the scoring, as well. Marco Sturm has kept the forward lines mostly intact throughout the month of October and into November, and the consistency has paid off. Four of the six goals came from the Bruins’ top two lines, neither of which serves as their shutdown forward line.

The fourth line jumped into the fray with a faceoff play that directly set up Kastelic’s goal. Then Elias Lindholm took advantage of a brutal Erik Karlsson defensive-zone turnover to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead in the first period.

“I think every line is dangerous out there. I think that it’s been all season,” JJ Peterka said. “That’s why we’re so dangerous (because) it doesn’t really matter who’s out there. Every line can produce offensively, play a good defensive game, and yeah, I think it’s helping us a lot this year.”

And yes, the Bruins’ third line, consisting of Casey Mittelstadt, Elias Lindholm, and James Hagens, continued their dominant defensive play. They played together for 8:11 before Hagens left the game early, and in that time, the Penguins generated just 0.03 expected goals compared to the Bruins’ 0.33. The trio also held Sidney Crosby’s line without a shot on goal in 4:46 of 5-on-5 time against the line.

Further, the Bruins held the Penguins’ top line of Crosby, Tommy Novak, and Rickard Rakell without a shot on goal throughout the entire game.

“Just with our structure and everything, our ability to kind of not lay low, but I think we rely on our structure a lot throughout the game, and we kind of just wait for mistakes,” Morgan Geekie said about the team’s success. “Teams are good, and sometimes it takes 60 minutes to finally see it break through. Tonight, we saw a couple go in a little earlier than that, but we all kind of play the same way. There’s not really any difference between the four lines. We’re all kind of workers, and I think you kind of just see everybody buy into that program, and you’re seeing everybody get rewarded.”

Geekie scored the Bruins’ fifth goal, his third in as many games. He brushed off the previous goal-scoring slump, knowing that the team was winning. On Monday, he joked about catching his brother Conor after scoring his third of the season, and now he has.

“No,” Geekie said when asked if scoring three in three lifts his confidence. “It’s always nice, and it’s a privilege to score in this league, and I understand how hard it is. I think when you start to see them go in, you start to get a little nitpicky. I had another chance, almost identical to the one I scored, and that’s going to be the one that’s on my mind, not the one that went in.”

“When you win games like we did tonight in the way that we’ve been playing, it makes things a lot easier, and everybody’s happy to come to the rink.”

The Bruins also got contributions from their blue line. Hampus Lindholm finished with an assist and a plus-4 rating, and Charlie McAvoy finished with a plus-3. In 16:08 together, the Bruins outshot the Penguins 8-4. They outscored them 4-1, and they owned a 70.25% share of expected goals for.

Frederic Brunet recorded an assist, setting up Mark Kastelic’s goal in the first period. He missed the previous three games as a healthy scratch, but Sturm was happy with what he saw out of the 23-year-old defenseman in his first game back.

“Yeah, it was a great shot,” Sturm said. “He’s done it in the past with that sneaky shot, but he was good. He was fine. He was absolutely fine. I’m happy.”

The Bruins still sit at the top of the Atlantic Division and have done so since October 16. They have won three in a row for the second time this season, and they sit three points behind the Carolina Hurricanes (13-3-2) at the top of the Eastern Conference.

The Bruins now return home, where they are 7-1-0 this season, for their second divisional matchup of the season. They will play the Florida Panthers at 1:00 PM on Sunday in their second of nine home games in November. The Bruins dropped their only Atlantic Division matchup this season, and Florida is also searching for their first win in the division.

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