The Bruins, who lost a 3-0 dud to Carolina Thursday night, are in a two-game losing streak for the first time since December. That time, the Bruins lost back-to-back games to Winnipeg and Florida.
“You’ve got to start building on the positives,’’ said coach Claude Julien. “I thought our effort was better. Our focus was better. There were a couple of areas that we need to continue to improve on. But if our guys go back out [today at Washington] and give that same effort, we’re going to turn this around.’’
Yesterday, Corvo snapped a 21-game goal-scoring drought. The play started when Patrice Bergeron won a puck battle in the left corner against Craig Adams. Bergeron turned his back to Adams, protected the puck, and sent a pass up the boards to Corvo at the left point.
As Corvo prepared to shoot, Brad Marchand engaged Milan Michalek in a net-front tangle. Marchand gained body position on Michalek and got his body in front of Fleury. At the same time, Corvo snapped a wrist shot through Marchand’s screen - Fleury didn’t appear to spot the defenseman’s release - and found the back of the net.
“Marchand did a great job standing in front of him until the last minute until [the shot] got to the net,’’ Corvo said. “It was the right height. The goalie was staying low, trying to see it. It just went in.’’
But Corvo was also culpable for the winning goal earlier in the third. Tim Thomas had turned aside a Dustin Jeffrey backhander. Thomas steered the rebound toward the corner. But Pascal Dupuis was in the right place to step in front of Thomas’s clearing bid. As Dupuis shoveled the puck into the slot, Corvo stood on the lip of the crease and tried to clear it away.
As Corvo attempted to whack the puck out of danger, Matt Cooke barreled into the crease with little resistance. With Corvo flat-footed, Cooke bulled into Thomas’s office and jammed in the winner at 1:53.
In the first period, Evgeni Malkin had scored Pittsburgh’s first goal on a power-play rebound with 8.1 seconds remaining in the period.
