NHL - Pittsburgh Penguins @ Boston Bruins 0-3 - Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Jimmy Hayes scored his first goal in 16 games and Tuukka Rask made 34 saves to help the Bruins to a 3-0 win against the Penguins at TD Garden. Max Talbot scored in the first period and Ryan Spooner had an empty-goal for the Bruins.
Rask is 7-0-2 in his past nine games. After a sluggish start, he's 12-7-0 with a 2.44 goals-against average and .917 save percentage this season. Hayes has five goals in his first season playing for his hometown team.
The Penguins lost for the fifth time in their past six games (1-4-1) and they're 0-2-0 under coach Mike Sullivan. In those two games, the Penguins have scored one goal. Phil Kessel and Chris Kunitz each hit the post in addition to Rask's saves.
Talbot scored on a 2-on-1 at 9:52 of the first period to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. After Hayes' neutral-zone check forced Brian Dumoulin into a giveaway, Adam McQuaid advanced the puck up to Talbot. While Landon Ferraro drove to the net, Talbot kept the puck and beat goaltender Jeff Zatkoff high to the glove side. It was his first goal of the season and first since in 29 games dating to Feb. 28. Hayes put the Bruins ahead 2-0 four minutes into the second period with a strong net drive. Spooner sent the puck to the front of the net and it went off Dumoulin, Zatkoff and then Hayes before crossing the goal line. Sullivan used his coach's challenge to see if there was goaltender interference on the play, but the goal was upheld upon review.
The Bruins played the majority of the second period without McQuaid, who was hit in the face by a Dumoulin shot. The Penguins outshot the Bruins 18-4 in the period and held Boston without a shot for the final 14:56. McQuaid returned for the third period despite getting 10-12 stitches in his chin.
Boston's shot drought lasted 18:59 until Brett Connolly tested Zatkoff at 4:03 of the third period. Spooner scored into an empty net with 2:43 remaining.
Zatkoff, in his first start since goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was ruled out 1-2 weeks with a concussion, made 26 saves. The Penguins were shorthanded up front too; one day after placing forward Beau Bennett (upper body) on injured reserve, the Penguins played without forward Nick Bonino because he was ill. The Bruins and Penguins complete their home-and-home series at Consol Energy Center on Friday.

Pens Quotes

Sidney Crosby: "Those things happen, but we've got to find a way to score some ugly ones. Once we get one or two, hopefully the flood gates open up for us but we can't let it bother us; at the same time, we can't accept it. I mean, yeah we hit a couple crossbars, but teams hit crossbars and they score different ways too. That's totally on us to find ways to score goals and it might have to be ugly ones until we start to get some bounces."
Mike Sullivan: "I think we are playing hard. I think our energy is there. I think our effort is there. I think sometimes we don't play as smart as we can and we turn pucks over in the wrong areas of the rink and it makes for a hard game because you end up on the wrong side of the puck. You end up chasing the game a little bit. For me, one of the things I am going to try to do here over the next little while is just to try to focus on the details of what it means to try to play the right way."

Pittsburgh's divisional rivals Washington Capitals were also in action losing 2-1 at home to the Ottawa Senators. Holtby made 26 saves, including 18 in the second and third period. Latta opened the scoring with his second goal of the season at 14:06 of the first period. Dmitry Orlov caught the Senators on a line change and passed the puck to Latta from the neutral zone. Latta beat Hammond to the glove side on a breakaway for his first goal since Nov. 13.
Carlson gave the Capitals a 2-0 lead at 5:43 of the second period. Latta poke-checked the puck to Justin Williams from the neutral zone, and Willams sent a cross-ice pass to a streaking Carlson, who scored with a slap shot from the top of the left circle. The goal was Carlson's sixth and gave him 11 points in his past 10 games. Ryan scored on the power play with 4:14 remaining in the third period after Tom Wilson was assessed a 10-minute match penalty for a hit on Curtis Lazar.