NHL Penguins edge Bruins 3-2

The Bruins fought back from a 2-0 early second period deficit to knot the game up at 2-2, but Jordan Staal's goal early in the third period re-established the lead for the Pittsburgh Penguins as the B's fell 3-2 on home ice on Saturday afternoon.

Despite the Bruins controlling the play early in the game, Pittsburgh got on the board first with a goal from Chris Kunitz. Matt Cooke broke into the attacking zone on the right wing and fed a cross ice pass to Jordan Staal at the left circle. Staal alertly saw Kunitz joining the play and slid the puck to him in the slot. Kunitz had a lot of net to work with and he got a piece of the puck with a one-timer attempt and it deflected off his own skate and knuckled into the net for his 15th goal of the season.

Pascal Dupuis' 9th goal of the season gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead 41 seconds into the second period. Zbynek Michalek's shot went wide right of the net and bounced off the end boards to Dupuis at the left post.

The Bruins pulled to within one on a rocket from the left point by Dennis Seidenberg at 11:28 of the second period. The fourth line of Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell, and Shawn Thornton's tireless work on the forecheck kept the puck in the attacking zone and led to Seidenberg's 3rd goal of the season.Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell picked up the assist on the goal. The secondary assist for Campbell represented his 100th career NHL point.

The B's struck again just 13 second later on Michael Ryder's snap shot snipe from the top of the left circle that whistled over the right shoulder of Marc-Andre Fleury for Ryder's 13th goal of the season.

Jordan Staal made it 3-2 Pittsburgh 3:25 into the third period. Tyler Kennedy dumped the puck behind Tuukka Rask's net where Matt Cooke tracked it down. Cooke's backhand pass from the trapezoid found Staal in the slot for his 2nd goal of his injury-shortened season.

The Bruins dominated play late in the game. The B's put 20 shots on goal in the final period, but could not get a puck past Marc-Andre Fleury for the equalizer.

Notes:

- Mark Recchi played in his 1,615th career NHL game, tying Larry Murphy for 7th all-time.

- Evgeni Malkin played in his 350th NHL game.

- Andrew Ference and Milan Lucic both missed this afternoon's game with upper body injuries.

- Sidney Crosby missed his 5th straight game with post-concussion symptoms.

- Gregory Campbell and Craig Adams squared off in the first period in battle of 6'0" 197 lbs forwards. Campbell unloaded several big haymakers to score the win. Adams went down to one knee, but that didn't stop Campbell from continuing to swing away.

- Steven Kampfer ran into Zdeno Chara's stick during the second period and blood started pouring from his face. The referees incorrectly saw it as a high stick from Pascal Dupuis and whistled him for a double minor. Kampfer left the game and did not return to the game. After the game, the Bruins announced that Kampfer was taken to a local hospital and has a broken nose.

- Bobby Orr was in attendance at today's game.

- Marc Savard was shaken up on a hard hit into the boards by Deryk Engelland, but able to remain in the game.

- The Bruins outshot the Penguins 46-36.

- The Bruins goal scorers (Michael Ryder and Dennis Seidenberg) recorded a co-game-high 7 shots on goal.

- Is it me or did Jack Edwards seem almost impartial, rational, and level-headed today? Maybe he doesn't turning a cranky homer until 7:00 PM.

- The Bruins battled hard today and come up on the losing end. Most of the time when the Bruins lose it is the old cliche of "we didn't play a full 60 minutes". It is hard to say that about this game.

- Craig Adams' 4 fighting majors on the season leave him 13 behind fellow Ivy Leaguer George Parros (league-leading 17 fighting majors).

- There were several reports from Bruins beat writers on Twitter that Johnny Boychuk challenged Matt Cooke to fight, but Cook decline the invitation. Marc Savard had a few digs at Cooke as a result [WEEI's DJ Bean] [CSNNE's Joe Haggerty]

- The B's are back in action on Monday afternoon for a MLK Day matinee with the Carolina Hurricanes.

- For more on today's game see what emergency call-up TonyAndrock had to say on PensBurgh