The Penguins inched closer to an NHL record Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.

Frankly, it is a mark they would rather be light years away from claiming.

With a resolute 4-3 victory against the Boston Bruins, the Penguins rebounded from a three-goal deficit to win a game for the third time this season, one short of the NHL’s single-season record.

“It’s not a recipe that we want to have very often,” Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson said. “It’s nice knowing you can come back, but it’s not the position you want to be in.”

It didn’t take the Bruins long to establish an ideal position. Eleven seconds, in fact.

That’s how long it took the Bruins to take the game’s first lead thanks to forward Patrice Bergeron scoring his 37th goal off a rush from the opening faceoff. Only 1:51 later, Bruins forward Anders Bjork lifted wrister from the slot past goaltender Matt Murray’s left shoulder for his eighth goal.

The Bruins engineered a 2-0 lead on only three shots. Off the ensuing faceoff, the puck slid in on net and was shoveled away by Murray, drawing sarcastic cheers for the goaltender with two Stanley Cup rings.

Murray declined to comment on the reaction. His teammates defended him more fiercely after the game than they did in the opening minutes.

“Unfortunately, he heard it a bit from the crowd early on in the game,” captain Sidney Crosby said. “But he stuck with it. He’s been great. That’s not easy for a goalie when you’re at home, and you hear it from your own fans.”

Defenseman Kris Letang said: “We heard the cheers in the first. That’s not the time to do that. Matt is a professional. He knows what he has to do.”

Things got worse for the Penguins at 15:07 of the first when Johnson inadvertently tapped in a pass attempt by Bruins forward David Pastrnak, who was credited with his league-leading 37th goal.

“He’s trying to make the right play and gets a bad bounce, and it ends up going in,” Murray said. “So you just move past it.”

Down 3-0 at home, the Penguins were just under 45 minutes away from being victims of a regular-season sweep by the Bruins.

“Plenty of time,” Johnson said. “The way the NHL is now, teams come back from 3-0 leads.”

Particularly the Penguins.

Only 1:27 after Johnson’s own-goal, Penguins forward Dominik Simon scored his sixth goal from a difficult angle left of the cage off an industrious pass by Crosby from behind the net. The timing of the goal was vital.

”We knew we had a lot of time, but it was good to get that momentum,” Crosby said. “We built off of it. We get one on the second shift of the second.”

Only 33 seconds into the second, forward Teddy Blueger cashed in a blind backhand feed by Crosby from the left of the net for his seventh goal.

“It was fun to be out there with him,” said Blueger, who emerged from the penalty box prior to the goal. “I don’t get to do that a lot. It was fun to be on the receiving end of one of those.”

Another rare goal forced a tie 1:41 into the third period.

Johnson scored the first short-handed goal of his 14-year career by rocketing a slapper from above the left circle under goaltender Jaroslav Halak’s blocker on the near side.

“No matter what you’re doing, whether it’s killing penalties, making a hit to get the team going or scoring a goal, it always feels good to help the team,” Johnson said.

The winning score came at 12:35 from two people who have aided the team all season.

Forward Evgeni Malkin forechecked on Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy along the end boards, forcing a turnover. He then slipped a forehand pass low to the left circle, where forward Bryan Rust fired a wrister past Halak’s blocker with his team-leading 21st goal.

“It’s a place we’ve been before, unfortunately,” Rust said of the early deficit. “But we’ve climbed out of holes before. Everybody in the room knew what it took. We just had to kind of elevate our game a little bit, play a little bit harder, play a little bit smarter.”

Note: Simon and Penguins forward Dominik Kahun failed to finish the game because of undisclosed injuries.

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