For the second time in less than 48 hours, the Boston Bruins skated away from a game with the Detroit Red Wings with a loss. This time the Bruins hung around and gave Detroit a game for awhile before falling 4-2 to the Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena on Sunday afternoon on national television.
The Bruins looked poised to avenge Friday night's embarrassing 6-1 loss to the Red Wings on home ice with a spirited effort early in Sunday's re-match in Detroit. Tyler Seguin, who was a healthy scratch on Friday night, gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead just 1:29 into the game when he jammed home a rebound off of Blake Wheeler's backhand wrap-around attempt.
The Red Wings answered back with their first goal of the game at 6:09 of the first period. Brad Marchand had the puck in his own zone and was trying to wait out a poorly-timed line change by the Bruins and circle back around in his own zone before coughing the puck up to an opportunistic Todd Bertuzzi, who was all alone in the slot. Bertuzzi faked a shot on the forehand before beating Tim Thomas was a backhander on the glove side for his 11th goal of the season.
Brad Marchand was able to redeem himself with a power play goal just over 6 minutes later. Michael Ryder carried the puck along the right wing boards deep into the attacking zone before feeding a centering pass to Marchand driving to the net. The goal was Marchand's 16th of the season.
Detroit opened the scoring in the second period 3:54 in on a goal from Pavel Datsyuk, when he hammered the puck home from the slot off of a rebound from Brian Rafalski's shot.
The Red Wings netted one more goal in the second to head to the dressing for the second intermission with a 3-2 edge. Patrick Eaves made a great tape-to-tape centering pass from the right wing to Kris Draper breaking towards the net. Draper beat Thomas on the stick side for his 6th goal of the season.
Todd Bertuzzi's second goal of the game gave the Red Wings an insurance goal and a 4-2 lead with 6:25 left in the game. Johan Franzen broke in 2-on-1 with Bertuzzi to his left. Franzen held the puck for long enough for Tim Thomas to think "shot" before sliding the puck to Bertuzzi, who tucked it under Thomas' left pad.
Notes:
- Claude Julien had some different personnel on the ice than Friday night. He decided to dress Tyler Seguin and Mark Stuart, while Steven Kampfer and Zach Hamill were healthy scratches.
- After the game, the Bruins announced that they have sent Zach Hamill back down to Providence. Hamill appeared in 3 games and recorded an assist during his brief call up to the big club.
- The Red Wings out-shot the Bruins 36-25.
- Todd Bertuzzi has 12 goals this season, 4 of those have come in the last two games vs. Boston.
- Milan Lucic went to the room after blocking a shot off of his skate, but was able to return to the game.
- Mark Stuart was the only Bruin to finish the game with a positive +/-. He was +1 on the game.
- Tyler Seguin was 1 for 12 in the face-off cirlce today.
- The Bruins are back in action on Tuesday night vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs at TD Garden.
- For more on this game, head over to Winging It In Motown