What. A. Win! That’s how you stop a losing skid and tell the rest of the league you’re ready to hang with the big boys! Now they just need to bring that effort every game. How’d they do it? Let’s dive in.
1st Period
The way this game started had a lot of us thinking it would be another night if a slow start dooming the team. The first 5 minutes went by trading a few shots, hits, and other pleasantries until Husso couldn’t quite cover a shot by Pastrnak. The puck got loose and stopped short of the goal line, but James van Riemsdyk found it first and cleaned up for a 1-0 Boston start.
The Bruins smelled blood after that. They came hard with a flurry of shots a minute-or-so after the goal but Husso didn’t let anything thru, squeakers or otherwise. Parker Wotherspoon holds Austin Czarnik and is sent to chill in the silverware drawer, but nothing really comes on the man-advantage and the Bruins seem to have momentum. Shortly after getting back to 5 skaters, Matt Poitras manages to ditch his coverage and gets a pass with an open lane to Husso you could have landed a plane on. He puts it right where he needs to, puts the Bruins up 2-0 only 10 minutes into the game, and Wings fans start putting away their ginger ales for something a little stronger.
That seemed to spark the team. The result wasn’t there, but the effort sure was as the Wings peppered Ullmark with about 8:00 left in the period. If they could do that, then they could do it again with better results and they would. Brandon Carlo helped by volunteering to sit for 2 minutes, what a guy. On the Powerplay, Larkin fed Perron a wobbly one to the left side of the ice and drew attention away from a gliding Lucas Raymond. Perron was able to find him though, and got an absolute laser beam pass onto his stick. With nobody close to hassle him, Raymond got in close and beat Ullmark’s glove. 2-1 Boston, but now the Wings felt right back in it. The period would end with the two sides exchanging a few love letters but no more fireworks in the twine.
2nd Period
The Wings and Bruins came out of their locker rooms matching energy to start this one. Trading blows for half the period, it would take a Mason Lohrei boarding penalty (this is a BEAR hunt, not a MOOSE hunt…) and a Jake Walman one-timer that looked more like a shot from a cannon to break the stalemate in action. With Powerplay time fading fast, the Bruins collapsed hard on the cycle along the left wall. That left Walman open for a one-timer, fed from Seider, and I don’t think Ullmark saw any part of it.
The knotted score wouldn’t last long. After gaining our zone, Charlie Coyle dumped the puck to his teammates and then snuck down to Husso’s left side. A sharp feed from DeBrusk made for an easy tap-in on a wide open net, and I bet the Wings watch this on repeat for the next few days as a reminder not to lose your man.
Down 3-2, the Wings would play the last 6:00 of the period like a boxing match. The two sides traded blows and prodded each other for weaknesses that got quickly covered up. Despite a penalty to Walman, the period closes with no more scoring and you can tell we’re gonna be in for one hell of a 3rd.
3rd Period
I was expecting tight, exciting hockey that leaves your stomach in knots but is one hell of a ride. What we got in the 3rd as SO much better.
The two sides trade blows to open the period until Dylan Larkin decides he’s done with that crap. Raymond feeds our captain for what looks like a standard zone-entry facing two defenders, but one Boston defender peels off expecting Raymond to streak in. That leaves Larkin essentially alone with Wotherspoon. Larkin gets a step on him and cuts to the net, letting a shot go as soon as Ullmark shifts his weight. Wotherspoon defends as best he can, and appears to get his stick partially on the shot, but with Ullmark’s weight on the wrong side it doesn’t matter and he can’t move fast enough to get in front of where Larkin is shooting. 3-3 with about 7:00 gone in the 3rd.
That got the Wings going and the Bruins reeling. Cycling in the offensive zone, Compher caught the Bruins pulling too close to the right side of the ice. Perron was open, and got fed from across the ice. The pass wasn’t clean though, which may have worked in his favor – he fanned on the shot but Ullmark bit, letting Perron pick his follow-up shot as the defense collapses around him. He gets the shot off, and Ullmark loses the puck as his own defender creates a screen for Perron. 4-3 Wings, and they aren’t done yet.
With the Bruins on their heels, the Wings continue to push. Gaining the offensive zone with a bobbling puck, Copp feeds Compher across the ice. This needs to be drilled into the Red Wings’ heads every practice… find ways to MAKE GOALIES MOVE! The cross-ice pass forces Ullmark to square-up to Compher and respond to his shot. Compher beats Ullmark but the shot rings off the crossbar. Copp doesn’t stop moving into the zone after passing the puck though, and the ricochet goes right to him. With a wide-open net and already in position over his defender, Copp has zero trouble hitting the open net and Ullmark has less than zero chance to stop this one. 3 goals in about 3 and a half minutes, and the Wings are now up 5-3 with under 10:00 to play.
The Bruins still had some fight in them though. With Copp in the bad boy box for a trip, Pastrnak gets time and space after a cross-ice pass in our zone. Guess what 2 things you absolutely CANNOT give to Pastrnak… Our lead is cut to 1 with about 6:00 left in the game.
Managing to keep thing s tight for the next 5-ish minutes, the Bruins’ shenanigans ended up being their own undoing as 2 penalties in about 15-seconds (Pastrnak for tripping, Coyle for holding) killed any reasonable opportunity for Boston to pull Ullmark for an extra man. Lindholm and Larkin would punch each other’s dance cards for matching 10-minute misconducts, and Marchand would get up to his usual scummy tactics to close this one out with the good guys on top 5-4. Enjoy your first regulation loss of the season, Boston.
Takeaways
This team has shown thru multiple games that they can come on HARD once they get going. They still need to work on doing that at the start of the game instead of well after the puck has dropped, but the ability of this squad to stay in games is undeniable.
For a coach developing a defense-first system, we sure did lose men a few times tonight. I’m sure Lalonde is happy with the win, but he’s gonna hit the boys hard next practice about tracking their assignments. That goes for Husso too.
As I mentioned in the game thread, a functioning Powerplay makes the Wings MUCH more dangerous. That was on display tonight, with the man-advantage getting us back into this game for the first 2 Wings goals. Going 2-for-8 on the night is a damn good mark. I don’t think it was much of a deterrent for the Bruins and their leader’s typical disdain for polite play, but it’s going to make a lot of teams think twice about pushing the rules when playing us.
It was big to pick up 2 points tonight. All things considered, I think this is an indication that we should expect to be in contention for 2 points every night. I don’t think this season has started the way anyone thought it would regarding the standings, and if we can keep taking advantage of that topsy-turvey-ness by banking points it’ll leave us in a pretty good position come February and later. It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the Yzerplan.
LGRW
