Pittsburgh loses for the 12th straight time.
By The Associated Press

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Penguins lost a club record 12th in a row and tied an NHL record with their 11th straight home loss, falling 6-3 Tuesday night to the Boston Bruins on Dan McGillis’ first goal in nearly two months.

Ryan Malone scored twice, but the Penguins still broke the club-record losing streak set by their 1982-83 team – 11 in a row from Jan. 22-Feb. 10, 1983. The Penguins also became the fifth NHL team to lose 11 straight at home in a single season, joining the Bruins (1924-25), Capitals (1975), Senators (1993) and Thrashers (2000).

Pittsburgh will set the league record if it loses Monday night at home to Toronto. Before then, the Penguins play at Florida on Thursday and St. Louis on Saturday. The Penguins, who haven’t won since Jan. 12 at Philadelphia and at home since Dec. 29 against Chicago, are creeping closer to the NHL record 17-game losing streaks by the Capitals in 1975 and the Sharks in 1993. The Penguins already own the league record for the longest winning streak, winning 17 straight late in the 1992-93 season.

Joe Thornton had a goal and two assists as Boston won its sixth in a row, even though All-star forward Glen Murray sat out with an unspecified illness. Murray, who leads the Bruins with 23 goals, has scored at least one goal in each of his last six games, totaling nine goals over that span.

Every Boston goal but Thornton’s came with a player in the penalty box. Sergei Samsonov, who later left with a rib injury; Martin Lapointe and McGillis scored on the power play. Mike Knuble scored with the teams skating 4-on-4 and Brian Rolston scored short-handed in the third period.

to make it 5-3. The Penguins have allowed a league-leading 12 short-handed goals.

The Bruins went 3-for-5 on the power play after failing to score more than one power-play goal in a game since Nov. 19 against Atlanta.

Boston led 2-1 and 3-2, but the Penguins tied it each time – by Malone late in the first period on a power play and by Matt Bradley, who scored his fourth of the season in the second period to make it 3-3.

McGillis, coming off a two-game layoff with a strained hip muscle, put the Bruins ahead 4-3 less than two minutes later by taking Thornton’s cross-ice pass and steering it through two Penguins and past goalie Sebastien Caron. He hadn’t scored in 25 games since Dec. 11.

Rolston scored his 17th in the third following P.J. Axelsson’s up-ice rush with Pittsburgh on a power play, and Thornton scored his 15th into an empty net during the final minute.

The Penguins own the NHL’s longest losing streaks over each of the last two seasons. They lost 10 straight last season, including an overtime loss.

Notes: Boston is 2-0 on what technically is a seven-game road trip, though it was interrupted by the All-Star break. … Penguins F Steve McKenna (torn pectoral muscle) likely will miss the rest of the season. … Boston finished 3-0-0-1 against Pittsburgh this season. … The Penguins have been outscored 55-17 during their home losing streak. Until this season, they had never dropped more than eight straight at home, even over multiple seasons.

AP-ES-02-10-04 2215EST