BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins (15-12-0) used a familiar recipe en route to a shootout win against the Detroit Red Wings (13-11-2) 3-2 on Saturday night inside TD Garden.
Elite goaltending from Jeremy Swayman, while Morgan Geekie scores at the other end of the ice.
Geekie scored two more on Sunday, crossing the 20-goal plateau before November ends. He's tied with Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead at 20.
Casey Mittelstadt's silky mitts scored the decisive shootout goal, while Swayman made three straight saves in the shootout.
It's almost standard operating procedure for the Bruins when Swayman's in the net. Play some strong defense, just giving him any visual of the puck. Then, Swayman makes outstanding save after outstanding save.
Detroit's two goals tonight? One perfect backdoor deflection off of a brutal turnover in the defensive zone, while the other was a 2-on-0 with a clean pass, also to the back door.
Nothing else beat Swayman.
How it all happened:
The game went scoreless for the first 20 minutes, with the Bruins killing off two minors in the first period, on another night filled with penalties.
Mark Kastelic fought Moritz Seider at the end of the first period, and that scrap gave Boston a ton of life, while Kastelic clearly won the bout.
Still, Boston came through the other side. They began the second period on a power play and came out red-hot. The man advantage didn't succeed, but it brought all the momentum to Boston.
Then, two minutes later, Geekie scored his first of the game.
It's a perfect redirection, and a great setup from Hampus Lindholm, shooting for that exact tip. Alex Steeves' effort should be highlighted, as he flies from one side of the zone to the other, forcing Ben Chiarot to turn the puck over.
The lead carried into the third period, where the game really opened up after a relatively plodding first 40 minutes.
Detroit took over in the third period, routinely generating high-danger chance after high-danger chance, but Swayman kept shutting the door.
Detroit tied the game after a bad Marat Khusnutdinov turnover, with Lucas Raymond redirecting Dylan Larkin's slap pass.
Things went from bad to worse for Boston, with Geekie getting knocked down hard, and laboring off the ice. For a moment, it looked like he may go down the tunnel, but he stayed on the bench, working with a trainer.
Somehow, he didn't miss a shift. Then came a late power play with under seven minutes to go. Mittelstadt slid Geekie the puck for an open one-timer, and he did not miss.
It's hard to strike a puck cleaner than Geekie did, and his celebration was one of relief after the potential injury scare.
Still, the Bruins needed to kill off another six minutes and change.
They came close, but another defensive breakdown proved costly. While skating with 6-on-5 with an empty net, the Red Wings spread the ice, and Larkin sprung Patrick Kane for a mini 2-on-0, where he fed Michael Rasmussen for a backdoor finish.
The equalizer came with under two minutes to go, ensuring both teams a point.
In overtime, Elias Lindholm took a penalty to prevent an Alex DeBrincat breakaway. All that man advantage led to was more Swayman making saves.
Steeves nearly won it with a gorgeous wrister, but Talbot barely got a piece of it, taking the game into a shootout.
There, Swayman stopped Raymond, Kane, and DeBrincat while Mittelstadt undressed Talbot to win it for the Bruins.
Boston's next game is the second half of this home-and-home with the Red Wings, Tuesday night in Detroit.