Bruins-Penguins: Boston Wins 10th Straight, Ices Penguins, 4-2

The Boston Bruins won their first game of the new year tonight at TD Banknorth Garden, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 for their 10th consecutive victory to open up a six-game homestand.

With the victory, the Bruins took both games of a home-and-home with the defending Eastern Conference champions by a combined score of 9-4.

More importantly, the Bruins kept Penguin stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin off the scoresheet for most of the game, with Malkin's assist on a Ruslan Fedotenko goal the only point between the two. Strong defensive play by Zdeno Chara, Dennis Wideman, and Shane Hnidy made Manny Fernandez's job a lot easier, despite facing 32 Penguins shots.

While Pittsburgh's Dustin Jeffrey opened the scoring less than three minutes in, David Krejci answered just over a minute later with his 14th goal of the season. Krejci has now scored in 10 straight games, each one of them a B's win.

The other Boston scorers were P.J. Axelsson (on a power play), Milan Lucic, and Marc Savard (in the Pens' empty net with three seconds to go in the game).

While Krejci, Axelsson, and Chara may have been the Three Stars of the game, Fernandez made some impressive stops, remaining perfect at home this season and currently possessing a 13-1-1 record over his last 15 games.

On the other end of the ice, Dany Sabourin took a while to get into a rhythm for Pittsburgh, but made some key stops to keep the game from becoming a blowout.

The Penguins play again in Florida on Saturday night. The Bruins will resume their six-game homestand on Saturday, hosting the Buffalo Sabres.