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Over-bearing: Wings down the Bruins

Wings trying to restart their winning streak, cut short too soon at only one thanks to the loss in Columbus on Friday. Bruins this time? Piece of cake.

First Period

Robby Fabbri gets the first scoring chance of the game after a solid bit of defending by Patrik Nemeth in the Wings’ zone. After this, we get a full loop of the forward lines and nothing real interesting going on until Larkin’s line comes back on and creates a scoring chance that Larkin just misses. Shortly after, Brad Marchand trips up Jonathan Bernier and takes the first penalty. The Wings’ power play can’t get anything going and the best scoring chance is a short-side roof attempt by Charlie Coyle (who you might notice does not play for the Red Wings).

Mike Green had a nice shift in the aftermath of the power kill, jumping into the play and dangling around Rask’s net to create a shot.

To this point, Boston is putting on consistent pressure, but the Wings are fighting back well. Pastrnak barely misses a cross-ice feed from Bergeron that would have given him an open net to shoot at and we hit the ten-minute mark still at zeroes.

Observation: Andreas Athanasiou loves nothing more than taking one-timers from the top of the right circle and to my recollection he has never ever scored from there. I might be wrong.

Sean Kuraly trips Valtteri Filppula coming out of the Wings’ zone and Detroit gets another power play. This one also goes by somewhat benignly, except Hirose makes a floater pass that AA can’t bat out of mid-air and then AA tries his signature shot from the area I just mentioned (Surprise! It’s not a goal!).  Just after, the Wings go shorthanded on a Trevor Daley penalty for taking down Kuraly.

Detroit’s PK dos a good job for the first 42 seconds, but then Filppula trips Jake DeBrusk in the neutral zone to give Boston a two-man advantage. Bernier makes two saves on the left side of his crease against Brad Marchand receiving feeds from his teammates. Luke Glendening and Filip Hronek do a really good job helping limit options here. Daley gets out and Bernier makes yet another good save. (Patrik Nemeth is also on the ice but his job-doing isn’t as-nice).

Detroit manages to kill off both of those penalties and get so excited about doing good work shorthanded that Justin Abdelkader gives them another chance to shine. Ok, he fell down and then Charlie Coyle tripped over his stick, but I don’t have to be fair to anybody here.

The Boston power play this time spends some time getting cute and the Wings’ PKers do a really good job eliminating space to make entries difficult, but the star again is Bernier late in the Abdelkader penalty, as the Bruins do find a way to get dangerous chances on net.

Fortunately, Bernier is up to the task and the Wings are able to kill off the rest of the penalty and the period.

The Score: 0-0
The Shots: 12-6 Boston
Standout Players:  Bernier, Glendening, Hronek
The Period All Summed Up: If you’ve been looking for the Wings to play positionally solid against a good team, you got a fun period out of this one.

Second Period

Boston starts the period in Detroit’s end, but the first real chance is a Tyler Bertuzzi feed to Dylan Larkin coming into the Boston end for a nice opportunity that Rask kicks aside.  Shortly after, Adam Erne has a really good shift, blocking a shot and starting a rush, then preventing transition and getting it to Brandon Perlini to jump back into the zone. Perlini makes a move to get a shot off and slides it inside the far post to make it 1-0 Red Wings.

Givani Smith does well in both ends on the follow-on shift but the Bruins generally start turning it up in the aftermath. A good shift by Athanasiou with Taro Hirose and Tyler Bertuzzi breaks this up slightly but we go into the first break off another save by Bernier.

Detroit fights back out of this break, with some additional push. Athanasiou rings a puck off Rask’s noggin that bounces off the crossbar, back off Rask’s head and then the top of the net.

Observation: Doc Emrick pronounces Gustav Lindstrom’s name with the same careful confirmation of the N in his name that Mickey Redmond does and I’m worried that announcers doing this is going to slowly make me hate the kid for it.

Erne and Perlini create another scoring chance just out of the 2nd TV timeout, but the puck is cleared out and moved up ice. The Bruins begin a cycle and the lead momentarily disappears as Pastrnak blindly throws a puck from the half-boards that Brad Marchand comes in and tips under Bernier. HOWEVER, Blashill challenges for offsides and it’s revealed that Patrice Bergeron makes a line change slightly too-slowly and the goal comes back, leaving the score at 1-0.

The Bruins almost tie it up within the next minute anyway, as Bernier is forced to come cross-crease to stop a Danton Heinen shot. Detroit pushes up ice with Fabbri making a good pass to enter the zone just before getting crushed by Chris Wagner. This leads to an odd-man rush that ends with Marchand pushing a shot wide and Fabbri heading to the locker room.

Patrik Nemeth gets danced by DeBrusk charging into the Wings zone and takes a holding penalty with about three minutes to go in the period. Bernier has to make saves on Krug and Heinen, but it’s another good effort by the PK. Immediately afterward, Detroit pours pressure on. Larkin hits the post with a backhander and Hronek is all over the ice, but we finish the period like we started.

The Score: 1-0 Red Wings
The Shots: 26-13 Boston (14-7)
Standout Players: The Hirose-AA-Bertuzzi line, Jonathan Bernier
The Period All Summed Up: It’s more Boston mistakes than Detroit playing well enough to be shutting them down, but it doesn’t feel THIS lopsided.

Third Period

The lead only lasts 33 seconds into the third, as Luke Glendening gets high-sticked by Pastrnak and then isn’t there to cover his attacker as the Bruins bring it back in and Pasta feeds it cross crease to Krug to officially make it 1-1.

Taro Hirose gets a chance on the follow-up that Rask stops and Bertuzzi puts one through the crease but it stays tied for the time-being. It also stays tied a minute later as Abdelkader pushes a cross-ice feed from Givani Smith wide of the net.

Tyler Bertuzzi does mean stuff to Chris Wagner and then on his next shift does good work to establish the zone, leading to a power play as Trevor Daley is tripped by Jake DeBrusk.

The Wings get set up in the zone thanks to a triple drop-pass in the neutral zone so this HAS to end in a goal. Fortunately, Athanasiou gets it on the side of the net and banks it in off Rask to make it 2-1 Red Wings off a beautiful feed from Tyler Bertuzzi

Boston comes out pushing back and the Wings generally keep them to the outside, but Bernier has to make another sliding stop on a dangerous Pastrnak chance. Of course, the next dangerous chance for the Wings comes from the Hirose-AA-Bert line.

We drip under seven minutes and the Bruins really start pouring it on. Hirose makes two good defensive plays and one turnover. Biega takes a high stick by Pastrnak (this one actually IS a follow-through that shouldn’t be called). Mike Green makes a good read behind the net recognizing his outlets are covered and instead feeding it to Larkin up the middle.

McAvoy hits a post through traffic and later feeds Wagner for a wide-open put away that he misses wide.

We’re under three minutes left now and I’m legit clenching.

Larkin takes a turnover for a contested break that Rask saves with two minutes left. Just after that, the Boston netminder comes off for the extra attacker. Bertuzzi gets a non-icing shot at the empty-net he puts wide.

Under a minute, Hronek and Nemeth combine to take Marchand behind the Wings’ net and strip him of the puck. Hronek feeds Ehn who pokes it off the boards to escape the zone and then feeds Athanasiou joining him up ice. AA hits the empty-netter to seal the deal.

Final Score: 3-1 Red Wings
The Shots: 40-20 Boston (14-7)
Standout Players: Hronek, Bernier, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, Ehn


Next up: Tuesday rematch in Buffalo.

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