Bruins goalie steps up in shutout win with second straight strong start

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Bruins goalie steps up in shutout win with second straight strong start

Lauren Campbell · MassLive

Mon, Jan 12, 2026 ·

2 min read

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BOSTON — The Bruins put themselves in position to score plenty of times Sunday night. Despite six power play opportunities, a Mark Kastelic breakaway and four shots on goal from David Pastrnak , Boston only scored once.

But that one goal, a day after Boston put up 10 against the New York Rangers , from Viktor Arvidsson , and a 27-save performance from Joonas Korpisalo was enough for a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins .

“I was hoping we’d save some goals for today and we did — one,” Korpisalo said with a laugh after the game.

It hasn’t been the best season for Korpisalo. The goalie had an .882 save percentage through his first 15 appearances. He appeared to lose the trust of the coaching staff as Jeremy Swayman began to get a brunt of the starts. But after a strong start against the Calgary Flames in which Korpisalo made 28 saves, coupled with his shutout performance Sunday, the trust has slowly come back.

“I think his last game really helped, not just for his confidence but also in general for our team,” coach Marco Sturm said. “There’s no bad thing about putting him in net to think about, like what are we going to get tonight? He’s been very good lately and he showed it again (Sunday). A game like (Sunday) is not easy. I think we saw two tired teams out there and we needed the goalie. And that’s what we had (Sunday).”

Korpisalo came up big for the Bruins all throughout the game, but particularly the final five minutes of the third period when he made two saves on Sidney Crosby ’s backhand shot.

“He’s got one of the elite backhanders in the whole league,” Korpisalo said. “He got a couple rebounds out of it, too, so you just try to scramble and do something to prevent the puck from going in.”

The Bruins are 3-0-0 on their homestand after a 2-2-1 road trip. Their win Sunday night put them a point ahead of the Penguins in the Eastern Conference standings.

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