PITTSBURGH — Frank Vatrano had three goals for his first career hat trick, Patrice Bergeron scored twice, and the Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2 Friday night to sweep the teams’ home-and-home series.
Loui Eriksson also scored for Boston, which is 4-0-1 in its past five games. Ryan Spooner added three assists and Brad Marchand added two. Tuukka Rask made 30 saves to improve to 8-0-2 in his last 10 games.
BRUINS UP NEXT
WHO: New Jersey Devils at Boston Bruins
WHEN: 5 p.m. Sunday
TELEVISION: NESN
Conor Sheary – Vatrano’s college teammate at UMass – got his first two NHL points with a goal and an assist, and Trevor Daley scored his first goal with the Penguins, who are 0-3 since Mike Sullivan replaced Mike Johnston as coach last weekend.
Overall, Pittsburgh has lost four in a row (0-3-1).
Sidney Crosby had two assists for the Penguins to break a three-game point drought.
Sheary made it 1-0 at 8:20 of the first period. From the left hash marks, he took a feed from behind the net from Crosby and one-timed it past Rask.
The Bruins tied it just 1:43 later and did not trail again.
Landon Ferraro blasted an unscreened shot that went in off goaltender Jeff Zatkoff’s glove at 10:03.
After Sheary was tripped by Boston’s Kevan Miller, the Penguins gave up a short-handed goal 1:03 into the second period. Bergeron was in the low slot and lifted the puck over Zatkoff for a 2-1 lead.
Five seconds after that Penguins power play expired, at 2:38, Daley tied it 2-2.
Boston regained the lead, 3-2, with a power-play goal at 9:39 of the second period when Eriksson got three whacks at the puck from the top of the crease and put the last one under Zatkoff.
During 4-on-4 play, the Bruins’ Zdeno Chara sent a shot from the right point over the net. The puck bounced off of the glass and back to the front of the net, where Bergeron swatted it in for a 4-2 lead 35 seconds into the third period.
Vatrano punched in a loose puck at 12:18 of the third to make it 5-2, and scored on a rebound three minutes later.
SENATORS 4, SHARKS 2: Bobby Ryan had a goal and an assist, Craig Anderson made 31 saves and the Ottawa beat San Jose for its fourth straight home win.
CAPITALS 5, LIGHTNING 3: Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie both finished with two goals and two assists, and Marcus Johansson got the tiebreaking goal with 5:44 left as Washington rallied at home from three goals down to beat Tampa Bay.
PANTHERS 2, HURRICANES 0: Roberto Luongo made 24 saves, Willie Mitchell scored 4:09 into the third period and Florida won at Carolina.
CANUCKS 4, RED WINGS 3: Linden Vey scored in the seventh round of the shootout to give Vancouver a win at Detroit.
JETS 5, RANGERS 2: Bryan Little scored two first-period goals and Blake Wheeler added four assists as Winnipeg won at home.
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