The Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in shutout fashion on Sunday afternoon.
However, it wasn’t $66 million goalie Jeremy Swayman between the pipes. It was 31-year-old veteran backup Joonas Korpisalo who denied all 27 Penguins shot attempts.
Korpisalo improved his record to 8-8 on the year in his 16th start of the season. He had just an 88.8% save percentage coming into the game and was allowing nearly 3.5 goals against.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHowever, Korpisalo has been stellar in the new year. He is now 2-0 with Sunday’s shutout effort building off of Thursday night’s 4-1 win, where he saved 28-of-29 shots.
With Boston coming off a 10-2 trumping of the New York Rangers, head coach Marco Sturm told NESN analyst Andy Brickley that it looked like “two tired teams” on the ice tonight. But sometimes one is all it takes.
“We try to teach them all season long; there isn’t always an ‘A’ game,” Sturm said. “But you can win with the B game, and that’s what we did tonight.”
The lone goal of the afternoon belonged to winger Viktor Arvidsson just 11 minutes into the game. Arvidsson was parked in front of the Penguins’ crease and capitalized on a rebound to spring the Bruins into the win column.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementDefenseman Nikita Zadorov was on the ice for Boston’s game-winning goal. NESN’s play-by-play announcer Judd Sirott asked the defenseman to draw from his experience playing against Arvidsson last season to explain how difficult it can be to cover him low in the offensive zone.
“When I played against him, he didn’t really have a chance to go in front of the net,” Zadorov joked.
The Bruins are winners of three straight and will continue their homestand Tuesday night against the Detroit Red Wings.
More Boston Bruins:Bruins Fans Will Love Christian Gonzalez’s Fit Before Patriots-Chargers
AdvertisementAdvertisement