Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) is congratulated at the bench after scoring during the first period.

(Photo Credit: Mary Schwalm/AP)

By Mike Cratty | Follow me on Twitter @Mike_Cratty

Home: Detroit Red Wings

Away: Boston Bruins

Boston’s Lineup

Forwards

Bjork – Krejci – Pastrnak

Marchand – Nordstrom – DeBrusk

Heinen – Forsbacka-Karlsson – Acciari

Wagner – Kuraly – Backes

Defense

Grzelcyk – Miller

Krug – Clifton

Lauzon – Kampfer

Goalies

Rask

Halak

Detroit’s Lineup

Forwards

Abdelkader – Larkin – Mantha

Nyquist – Nielsen – Athanasiou

Rasmussen – Glendening – Bertuzzi

Vanek – de la Rose – Frk

Defense

Daley – Green

Kronwall – Cholowski

DeKeyser – Jensen

Goalies

Howard

Bernier

First Period

The last time the Bruins and Red Wings met, the Bruins came out on top with an emphatic 8-2 win. In Little Caesars arena this time around, Detroit hoped for a change of fortune, coming in winning eight of their last ten games. But at the same time, Tuukka Rask came in with wins in eight of his last nine appearances against Detroit. Kevan Miller returned to the lineup after missing the last 13 games.

Detroit went the first 5:33 of the game without a shot on goal, while the Bruins had six. It was a pretty straightforward, back-and-forth period until Mike Green took a tripping penalty with 6:38 left in the period, giving the Bruins their first power play of the night. Nothing was going on the power play besides a couple of chances – goose eggs across the board.

There was some good back-and-forth action, but that’s about it despite the shots being largely in favor of the Bruins. They did a solid job of stifling Detroit in the neutral zone for a good chunk of the period. At the end of the first, the shots were 12-4 in favor of the Bruins.

Score: 0-0

Second Period

Jakob Forsbaca Karlsson broke the scoring silence at the 15:52 mark of the period. After scoring his first NHL goal last Saturday against Arizona, JFK clearly wanted more as he crashed hard to the net for that unassisted goal.

Tuukka Rask made an excellent two-part save on Michael Rasmussen to hold the lead. Rask continued to build on his solid performance from last Friday early on in this one. But, in what was a productive period in terms of shots for Detroit early on, they beat Rask on a slap shot from Nick Jensen that Tyler Bertuzzi tipped through the five-hole. Bertuzzi’s tricky deflection tied the game at one.

In the first period, Anders Bjork, David Krejci, and Jake DeBrusk saw some time together. In the second period, Danton Heinen, David Krejci, and David Pastrnak got some time together on the same line. DeBrusk also saw some ice time with Heinen and Krejci. Line shifting makes sense with Patrice Bergeron out for an extended period of time. The perfect solution won’t just drop into head coach Bruce Cassidy and crew’s collective lap. Bad news, Forsbacka Karlsson was sent to the dressing room shortly after his goal. He unintentionally deflected a pass across the offensive zone by Dylan Larkin up into his jaw. That’s never fun, so he went to the room to assess the damages.

Jacob de la Rose gave the Bruins a scare late in the period on a wrist shot that I can’t believe didn’t go in. So despite a late scare, the Bruins left the ice for the second intermission all tied up. The shots in the second period were 13-9 in favor of the Bruins, 25-13 Bruins after two.

Score:

Third Period

Forsbacka Karlsson did not return to the bench to start the period, so the Bruins rolled out 11 forwards temporarily. Forsbacka Karlsson eventually returned to the ice. The good news is that Chris Wagner gave the Bruins the lead just around seven minutes into the period. Sean Kuraly came from behind the net, spun and ripped a wrist shot towards Jimmy Howard right onto Wagner’s tape and in. The goal marked Wagner’s second goal of the season, and Kuraly notched his third assist.

The lead didn’t last long as Gustav Nyquist and Andreas Athanasiou flew into the offensive zone on a two-on-one. The end result was a rebound goal for Athanasiou that tied the game at two, and the goals were scored just 2:14 apart. Lots of scoring chances on both sides, not a lot of goal scoring. More line shifting came in the form of a Marchand, Forsbacka Karlsson, DeBrusk line. Headed to overtime, the shots were 35-25 Bruins overall and 12-10 Detroit in the period.

Score: 2-2

Overtime

Krejci, Pastrnak and Krug started for Boston, Mantha, Larkin, and DeKeyser started for Detroit. Pastrnak and Mantha traded good scoring chances early. Athanasiou ended it 49 seconds in with his second of the game for Detroit. Torey Krug and Brad Marchand just couldn’t corral the bouncing puck off of the draw, so Athanasiou spun around and sent one to the top corner and in. The Bruins get just the one point out of this one. Tuukka Rask made 24 saves on 27 shots in the loss.

Next up on the docket for the Bruins are the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night at home. Puck drop is set for 7:30 PM ET.

Final Score: 3-2 Detroit

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