Red Wings 5, Bruins 2: A Reinvigorated Power Play, Ville Husso, & Detroit Tame Boston Again
At T.D. Garden in Boston, the Red Wings built on momentum earned against the Devils and handed the Bruins their second regulation loss of the season
What's foreign to the rest of the NHL is now old hat for the Detroit Red Wings, and that's beating the Boston Bruins in regulation. In 19 regular season games, Boston has lost just twice over the course of 60 minutes (and thrice more in overtime), and both times, it was the Red Wings who handed the league's top team those regulation defeats.
Back on the first Saturday of the month, Detroit emerged triumphant out of a back-and-forth, physical, feisty affair at Little Caesars Arena, but Friday's matinee at T.D. Garden took on a different flavor.
Instead of scraping through a battle in which both combatants emerged bruised and bloodied, the Red Wings knocked off the Bruins this afternoon by building on the momentum they established Wednesday night against New Jersey, asserting their style on the game from the opening puck drop, and commanding the afternoon for three periods of what proved a 5-2 triumph.
Of course, against an opponent as formidable as Boston, there were moments at which the Bruins pushed back, but they were fleeting moments, to which Detroit always had an answer. Like against New Jersey two days prior, it was a performance in which the Red Wings' forecheck and neutral zone forced the team ahead early and refused to relent.
After five minutes and 13 seconds of hockey, J.T. Compher scored a power play goal to give his team a 1-0 lead. With Morgan Geekie in the box for holding and Detroit on the power play, Shayne Gostisbehere fired a simple point shot toward the net, and Compher—who had settled into a soft spot in the Bruin penalty kill—re-directed the puck past Jeremy Swayman.
Not quite 10 minutes later, Alex DeBrincat offered a single-handed demonstration of Detroit's forechecking prowess, stripping the puck off Boston's Matthew Poitras as the standout rookie crossed his own blue line, then racing in before firing a quick forehand past Swayman's blocker. After 15 minutes and one second, the Bruins found themselves in the unfamiliar position of trailing 2-0 on home ice.
The score remained 2-0 through the end of the first intermission, but in the early stages of the second, Boston threatened to disrupt the Red Wings' rhythm.
Three minutes into the frame, Jake DeBrusk scored a power play goal to cut Detroit's lead to one goal. The Bruins' best hockey of the game came in the minutes surrounding DeBrusk's goal, but thanks to Robby Fabbri, the Red Wings were able to disrupt whatever moment their hosts might have been building 10 minutes and 24 seconds later.
Though officially it wasn't recorded as a power play goal, Fabbri's blast came with Detroit in 1-3-1 formation in the offensive zone and Boston defenseman Mason Lohrei racing fruitlessly from the box to his defensive zone, having just served a high-sticking minor.
With Lohrei functionally out of the play, Daniel Sprong sent a cross-ice pass for Fabbri at the back post. Fabbri settled the puck onto his blade then wired it past Swayman with a wrister in a single, fluid motion. The Red Wings led 3-1 a few minutes past the game's midpoint.
Perhaps the most emblematic sequence of Detroit's performance for the evening came in the early stages of the third period.
Danton Heinen scored four minutes and 12 seconds into the game's final stanza, cutting the Bruins' deficit to one. On a different night (say a week prior against the Maple Leafs in Sweden), a goal against to jeopardize the lead might have reduced the Red Wings to a prolonged wobble and a blown lead.
Instead, Detroit's response was decisive and instantaneous. Off the ensuing face-off, the Red Wings' top line of Joe Veleno, Dylan Larkin, and Lucas Raymond drove play straight back to the Boston third of the rink for an extended stay. While they didn't score, Veleno drew a hooking minor against Bruin defenseman Brandon Carlo.
It took just eight seconds for Detroit to capitalize on the power play opportunity. Compher won the face-off back to Gostisbehere, and Gostisbehere returned to Compher in the slot as the Red Wings converged on Swayman's crease. Compher then slipped a pass across the slot to Larkin, who was open for a tap-in from just beyond the crease at the back post.
Detroit had cut out the Bruins' comeback bid before it had any chance to blossom, and the Red Wings had a well-deserved 4-2 lead, answering Heinen's lead in just 56 seconds.
In search of a two-goal comeback, Jim Montgomery lifted Swayman for an extra attacker with more than four minutes to play. However, instead of the comeback he sought, Montgomery was greeted by an empty netter from David Perron—fired from the Red Wings' defensive zone—to seal a 5-2 Detroit victory.
As if that weren't enough cause for celebration, goaltender Ville Husso—making his first start in nearly two weeks, since becoming a father—showed no signs of rust, stopping 25 of the 27 Boston shots he faced in one of his best performances of the season.
Two points in the standings and climbing to 10-6-3 for the season are important enough, but perhaps even more significant is the reminder—to themselves, to their fans, to the rest of the conference and league—that the Red Wings' five-game win streak in the season's early days might be getting more distant by the day, but it was neither an aberration, nor a fluke.
With not quite a quarter of the season played, Detroit looks every bit like a playoff contender—in the standings, by the eye test, and on the ice against the NHL's best. This time a week ago, the Red Wings felt like a struggling team clinging to post-season contention on the strength of a hot start. Seven days later, Detroit has re-asserted its credibility in the ferocious Atlantic Division on the strength of consecutive dominant victories over a pair of Eastern Cup contenders. Not bad work for a week most of the country spends eating and lounging.