Bruins explode to beat Red Wings, 5-1

The Bruins entered the weekend needing not only to capture four of a possible four points to feel good about themselves, getting balanced scoring was also imperative after Bruce Cassidy changed up his top nine coming out of the extended COVID-induced break.

Check and check.

After getting goals from their top three lines in their 4-3 comback win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, the B’s got a pair of fourth line goals, a tally each from the top two lines and one from the back end to beat the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday.

The B’s took a hard-earned 2-1 lead after two periods and then broke it open with three unanswered goals in the third. Jeremy Swayman (22 stops) also made the big saves when they were needed.

The win over the Wings allowed them to leapfrog over Detroit for the second wild card spot in the playoff structure.

The B’s had a strong first period – outshooting the Wings 15-6 with more than a half dozen legitimate scoring chances – but could only get to the first intermission with a 1-1 tie.

Detroit got on the board first at 11:28 with a fortunate goal by Tyler Bertuzzi, though an unforced icing from the B’s had a hand in it, too. After the faceoff win, Danny DeKeyser took a shot from the blue line that hit a couple of skates along the way. It eventually landed on the stick of Tyler Bertuzzi,who was able to beat a helpless Jeremy Swayman from the side of the net.

But the B’s put in the work to tie it up on a goal from the B’s new top line that has brought it a lunch pail in their first two games together. On the goal, Brad Marchand out-worked two Wings along the boards to get the puck to Craig Smith behind the net. Smith dished it out front to Patrice Bergeron, who beat Alex Nedeljkovic for his 11th goal if the season at 14:47.

The temperature went up in the second period. First, Marchand started a scrap with Vladislav Namestnikov and both went off for seven minutes, stick fouls added to the fighting majors.

Then, in a scrum in front of the Bruins net, Swayman and Sam Gagner took liberties with each other, earning two minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalties each.

Overall the Wings were better than they were in the first, holding a 10-8 shot advantage in the second, but it was the B’s who took the lead in the second. And for the second straight day, the offense was generated by a source they they need to get going. After Nick Foligno scored his first goal as a Bruin on Saturday, Erik Haula notched his second in a Boston uniform and first since November 13, giving the B’s a 2-1 lead at 7:37. Gathering a loose puck in his own zone off a missed Detroit shot, Haula took it from his own half board down the left wing and, from the left circle dot, he beat Nedeljkovic with a perfect, bar-down snipe.

Haula very nearly gave the B’s a two-goal lead on a shorthanded bid late in the period but his backhander hit the post and the B’s went into the third protecting a one-goal lead.

But they eventually did get that two-goal lead at 5:59 of the third as the B’s maintained possession in the offensive zone as they were changing out. Charlie Coyle fed Taylor Hall out high on the left wing and Hall took it down t the half board. From there, Hall made a terrific cross-ice pass to a pinching Charlie McAvoy and the defenseman buried his fifth of the year.

Then the fourth line, the only forward grouping held off the board on Saturday, got into the act. Trent Frederic gave the B’s a 4-1 lead at 7:55 with his first of the year when he scored off a rebound of a Mike Reilly shot off the rush.

And it was the fourth line that turned it into a rout at 10:39. Oskar Steen fed Tomas Nosek on the a rush and the former Red Wing buried it between between Nedeljkovic’s pads for his third of the year.

 

 

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3eJwU4P