The Bruins spent more than half the night (38:35 total) in possession of a 1-0 lead, but one goal — increasingly, their brand on home ice of late — wasn’t enough to chisel off even one point from the Penguins.
Philip Tomasino, acquired in a trade just days ago from Nashville, snapped a 1-1 deadlock with 7:26 gone in the third period, carrying Pittsburgh to a 2-1 win over the Bruins Friday night at TD Garden.
The loss, which once more dropped the Bruins back to .500 (11-11-3), left them with only three goals scored across their last four games (1-3-0) at the Garden. They scored once against the Blue Jackets, one more against Utah, zero against the Canucks, and then managed to squeeze out one more from the toothpaste tube against the hapless Penguins (now 9-12-4).
“Maybe we’ll score eight goals the next game and change that,” said an optimistic Trent Frederic, who set up Charlie Coyle for the only Black-and-Gold goal. “I don’t really know … I don’t have the answer [for lack of scoring at home]. I wish I knew.”
It appeared the offensive tide changed two nights earlier on Long Island, where the Bruins smoked the Islanders, 6-3, with Brad Marchand and Pavel Zacha each scoring a goal (giving him a 6, tied for the club high). Then after taking the 1-0 lead on only their second shot of the night, the Bruins were stymied on 31 straight by goalie Tristan Jarry.
Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman turned in one of his best efforts of the season, making a handful of timely stops. But the anemic Boston offense could not provide enough run support for their No. 1 stopper, who now has allowed only four goals over his last three starts.
Swayman’s stout work put his team in position to win; if only the shooters had better positioned their stick to score.
“I think we’re getting shots on net, which is a huge start for us,” noted Swayman. “Not that we rely on bounces, but we’re not getting the puck luck exactly every single game.
“But you make your own luck in this game. The game is pure. It rewards you when you play the right way, and I think we are playing the right way in a lot of ways. We’re excited for those to start going in, and I know they will.”
The Bruins cashed in for their one and only tally when Coyle connected only 1:24 into the action, helped by a porous Penguins defense that came up with more breakdowns than the Southeast Expressway on Thanksgiving eve.
The Penguins’ miscues left Coyle, set up with the Frederic feed, with abundant elbow room in the right circle and he snapped a quick shot by Jarry for a 1-0 lead and fifth goal of the season. The road looked wide open, but closed over the remaining 58 minutes.
The Bruins also took an early 1-0 lead Wednesday night on Long Island. Scoring the night’s first generally portends good things. The goal in Elmont, by Brad Marchand, sent the Bruins off to an eventual 6-3 win — lifting their record to 7-2-1 in the 10 games this season when scoring first. Now they are 7-3-1.
Swayman turned back a dozen offerings by the Penguins in the first period, and though most were not difficult saves, a number of them were timely. The first came at 1:13, Swayman denying Drew O’Connor. The Bruins turned the play up ice, leading 11 seconds later to Coyle’s goal. The next came at 2:11, Swayman turning back Sidney Crosby with a pad save and preserving the one-goal lead.
It was Swayman’s third start in the wake of Jim Montgomery being fired as coach. In the prior two starts (1-1-0), the ex-Maine Black Bear allowed only two goals. The first period Friday was the busiest Swayman has been since the coaching change, and perhaps his best in terms of making timely stops. He felt he slipped slightly on Tomasino’s game-winning goal, but overall his work of late has restored his No. 1 stopper status.
Fellow Russians Nikita Zadorov and Evgeni Malkin had a brief dustup with 22 seconds to go in the first, and it was Zadorov who started it, while sitting on the Boston bench (a bit of a twist). Zadorov ill-advisedly reached over the boards and gave Malkin a tap on the back. Not taking kindly to the love tap, Malkin wheeled around with his stick and slashed wildly Zadorov’s way.
Zadorov was lucky to be tagged with only a 2-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, while Malkin was charged with a slashing call.
“Yeah,” said coach Joe Sacco, displeased with Zadorov’s lack of composure, “we don’t need that penalty there.”
The Bruins were within a second of carrying the 1-0 lead into the third period, only to get sleepy and sloppy with their defensive coverage around their own net. Crosby, in possession of the puck behind the Boston net, dished a backhand feed in front and Rickard Rakell lifted it home from the doorstep with eight-tenths of a second remaining.
The Bruins went into the third period in need of a goal — something that has been a challenge for them all season. They didn’t get it. In 14 games, on home ice this season, they have scored only one goal in the third period.
“I would like to think not,” said Sacco, asked if he felt his club is pressing on offense in front of the home crowd. “Right now, it’s just a situation where the puck’s not finding its way in the net.
“We had our chances tonight again, but you have to execute at a higher level, finish off your plays … Overall, it was a game that I didn’t think we were at our best.”
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.