Vatrano Scores Hat Trick, Bruins Beat Penguins 6-2

PITTSBURGH -- Boston center Frank Vatrano scored three goals, center Patrice Bergeron had two more and the Bruins scored goals four different ways to sweep a home-and-home series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, winning 6-2 Friday night.

Left winger Loui Eriksson also had a goal as the Bruins scored goals 5-on-5, 4-on-4, short-handed and on the power play to support goaltender Tuukka Rask, who made 30 saves in improving to 8-0-2 in his last 10 games. The Bruins are 11-2-2 on the road this season.

The Bruins followed up a 3-0 win in Boston on Wednesday and now are 10-1-1 in their last 12 against the Penguins, including playoff games. The Penguins, 1-5-1 in their last seven, lost their fourth in a row and are 0-3 under new coach Mike Sullivan, who coached Boston from 2003-06.

Penguins rookie right winger Conor Sheary scored his first NHL goal and added an assist, and Sidney Crosby had two assists but the NHL's 28th-ranked offense did little else against Rask, who won his last five. Pittsburgh was 0-for-5 on the power play and is 0-for-19 in its last seven games.

The Bruins led 3-2 entering the third period, then scored three more times against goalie Jeff Zatkoff, with Vatrano scoring twice in the period. Vatrano had two goals in his first 16 games.

Sheary, who made his NHL debut Wednesday night in Boston, moved up to Crosby's top line after less than 17 minutes of playing time and immediately produced a goal. Crosby gathered the puck following left winger Chris Kunitz's hit on center Patrice Bergeron along the boards and found Sheary in the low slot for a wrister at 8:20.

The goal stopped Rask's scoreless streak of 150:49 against Pittsburgh.

But Sheary's former teammate at the University of Massachusetts, Vatrano, answered 1:43 later by snapping off a shot from the top of the left circle for his third goal.

Bergeron scored Boston's sixth short-handed goal of the season to make it 2-1 only 1:03 into the second period after center Brad Marchand outfought three Penguins for the puck and fed Bergeron for a wrist shot from the high slot.

Defenseman Trevor Daley scored his first goal for Pittsburgh four days after being traded by the Chicago Blackhawks. Daley scored on a slap shot from high above the right circle at 2:39, but Boston regained the lead with another special-teams goal.

Only 17 seconds after Penguins defenseman Ian Cole went off for high sticking, Eriksson was denied by Zatkoff on his first two attempts only to put a third into the net for a power-play goal and his 12th goal of the season. Boston's power play leads the league.

Zatkoff started back-to-back NHL games for the first time because of normal No. 1 Marc-Andre Fleury's concussion.

NOTES: Penguins G Marc-Andre Fleury, who played in 25 of the first 30 games, is expected to miss about a week with a concussion. ... The Bruins scratched RW Tyler Randell, D Joe Morrow and D Zach Trotman. ... Penguins rookie RW Conor Sheary received a promotion after one NHL game to join C Sidney Crosby's top line, which includes Chris Kunitz at left wing. Sheary made his NHL debut on Wednesday night in Boston, playing 16:41. ... Penguins C Nick Bonino returned after missing one game with an illness. ... Bruins coach Claude Julien on RW Jimmy Hayes: "He's a big man who has to play that (big man's) game." .... Crosby scored his first NHL goal on Oct. 8, 2005, against Boston when new Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was Bruins coach. ... Sullivan said D Kris Letang (upper-body injury) remains day-to-day. ... Former Penguins C Max Talbot, who scored both goals in Pittsburgh's 2-1 victory in Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals in Detroit, played his fifth game for Boston since being recalled from the Bruins' top farm club. ... Pittsburgh held out D Adam Clendening, RW Daniel Sprong and Fleury.