It’s a Tuesday night Wings/Bruins matchup in April. Boston is resting stars because they’re getting ready for the playoffs. Detroit is hoping to avoid giving up five goals.
Michael Rasmussen starts the game really well, but not well enough to get the Red Wings on the board first. A good rush by Tyler Bertuzzi ends up with a rush heading the other way where Erik Haula comes in as an uncovered trailer and snaps a shot top shelf to make it 1-0 Bruins.
Detroit answered by almost giving up another immediately and then generally getting outplayed. Larkin’s line had a good shift about 13 minutes in, but a combination of the good Bruins collapse and a few missed opportunities to use the extra space doomed them.
On the next shift, Detroit goes to the PP as Adam Erne eats a high stick from Marc McLaughlin. Detroit gives up a shorthanded off-man rush that turns into two follow-on scoring chances and a late man rush goal. 2-0 Bruins. Brandon Carlo
McLaughlin comes out of the box and Boston almost scores another.
Detroit gets another PP a few minutes later as Charlie McAvoy gets mad at Filip Hronek for… something. Roughing is this call. Guess which team gets the first actual scoring chance…
Just as the penalty expires, Larkin takes a feed from Seider and puts it past an Oskar Sundqvist screen top shelf. 2-1 Bruins. Larkin’s 30th.
The Score: 2-1 Boston
The Shots: 18-12 Bruins
The Weird Al Yankovic Lyric: I knew that we were having problems when you put those piranhas in my bathtub again
This period starts with the refs deciding that the Bruins have taken enough penalties to this point and they can’t call another until after Detroit takes one. On cue, that happens on the very next shift. Pius Suter for tripping. Detroit kills this one handily.
Detroit has a couple good shifts following up and end up tying the game on a good forecheck and then net-front play by Michael Rasmussen to slam a loose puck into the net. 2-2 tie.
Boston gets another PP out of the first break as Charlie Coyle outmuscles Jake Walman along the boards and draws a holding penalty. Detroit manages to get the kill on this one too and then the game opens up a bit with some big chances at either end. This works in our favor as Jakub Vrana feeds Filip Zadina for a one-timer past Jeremy Swayman’s outstretched glove. 3-2 Red Wings.
Charlie Coyle almost ties it up on a feed from Hall shortly after, but Tyler Bertuzzi realized he should backcheck JUST in time to break up the feed.
Boston keeps up their push for a bit, but a frankenline of Zadina-Suter-Gagner nearly jams a puck behind Swayman on a good forecheck by Gagner. One minute left to go in the period, Nick Foligno hooks Mo Seider dangerously close to the boards.
Detroit manages to avoid giving up a shorty and carries the man advantage over.
The Score: 3-2 Red Wings
The Shots: 33-24 Boston
The Weird Al Yankovic Lyric: We’re so loud and incoherent; boy, this oughta bug your parents
The period starts without Hampus Lindholm on Boston’s bench and without the Wings extending the lead on the carryover power play. Boston gets away with a puck over glass that isn’t called. The Bruins make up for that though. Charlie McAvoy high-sticks Lucas Raymond.
Jakub Vrana makes the Bruins pay here, as a broken zone re-entry comes his way and he controls before he snaps it off quickly and past Swayman. 4-2 Red Wings.
The next call goes against Detroit. Danny DeKeyser skates out of his way to take Brad Marchand into the boards away from the puck and sits for interference. We get a real scary sequence here as Seider breaks his stick and Sundqvist sacrifices his, but thankfully at an opportune moment, Sundqvist does the right thing and skates to get a new one handed to him from the bench. Detroit gets the clear and DK escapes the box.
Boston really starts pushing coming out of the 2nd TV timeout. Jake DeBrusk does some thick in-zone work and draws another DeKeyser penalty. This one is a hook. I don’t think it’s actually a hook, but whatever. Taylor Hall gets denied a goal by Jake Walman and then hooks the Wings’ defenseman so we go 4-on-4.
Nobody scores in those two minutes.
Boston pulls their goalie and Detroit nearly gets the empty-netter but it’s interrupted by Brad Marchand filling his diaper with upsetti. Tyler Bertuzzi hops in for the scrum to defend Dylan Larkin and we get matching minors to Larkin and Marchand.
2:36 left in the game and a McAvoy shot gets through traffic to make it a 4-3 game.
Bergeron credited with the tip-in.
Boston waits for a while to pull Swayman again. Ned makes a huge save on Bergeron with a chance right in front. Ned gets a dumped-in puck and instead of shooting for the empty net, he makes a beautiful 90-foot pass to Sam Gagner at center ice for the empty-netter.
5-3 Red Wings.
The Bruins start some big baby shit at the final whistle. Michael Rasmussen does big mad stuff to defend his teammates and the refs have to tell the benches to stay out of the fray.
The Score: 5-3 Detroit
The Shots: 50-29 Bruins
The Weird Al Yankovic Lyric: Put down that chainsaw and listen to me. It’s time for us to join in the fight
It wasn’t terribly pretty but I really liked the response by the team. Ned made a big difference. Mo Seider, Marc Staal and Jake Walman were all real solid in this one.
The Adam Erne we’ve been seeing of late is the one we wanted to see all season. Same with Rasmussen.
See you tomorrow against Winnipeg.