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1st Period:
Boston came out firing early, with Marchand getting chippy on the very first shift. Lucic carried over some of his hate from yesterdays Flyers game, and was throwing his body around. In terms of chances, it was a relatively quiet game until Reilly Smith got called for slashing and the Red Wings went on their first powerplay. Detroit sits at the top of the league in power-play percentage, but a bad Weiss turnover leads to a Marchand short-handed goal.
It was the third-straight Bruin goal for Marchand, scoring 6-on-4 and 4-on-4 yesterday, and 4-on-5 today.
It didn't take too long for Detroit to answer though, as the Spooner line had to chase the puck in their own end, and a bad Lucic turnover was followed by a soft Svedgoal tied it up 1-1.
Like I said, the bodies were flying around, and Daniel Paille got away with a cheap knee-on-knee hit against Erik Cole. Cole would return to the game.
Boston went on the powerplay themselves, and after a couple chances, David Pastrnak cashed in for his 8th goal of the season.
His celebration was also wonderful, as usual.
The Bruins had some extra chances that period, crashing the net on Gustavsson all night, but went to intermission up 2-1.
2nd Period:
There were some chances on both sides, a Lucic net-crash (that resulted in a penalty), and nearly the same play on the opposite end, that Niklas Svedberg made a HUGE stop on. With a one-goal lead at the time, it may have been the save of the game.
Shortly after, Detroit went on their third powerplay of the game, and just like in the 1st period, the Bruins PK capitalized on their chances. This time, Daniel Paille FINALLY scored on a breakway, fighting off two Red Wings on his way to make it a 3-1 game.
Later in the period, Paille scored AGAIN, for his first two-goal game since 2011.
It put the Bruins up late in the 2nd, and they would go into the locker room with a 4-1 lead over their Atlantic Divisional opponents.
3rd Period:
Almost immediately, the Red Wings go on another powerplay. This time, the league's leading PP cashes in, as Luke Glendenning puts it by Svedberg.
After putting pressure back on the Wings, a Bruins cycle down low followed by a Hamilton pinch puts the Bruins on the powerplay for Andersson's high-sticking. Some nifty passing along the half wall is the precursor to a Loui Eriksson powerplay goal on a Patrice Bergeron shot rebound.
A few minutes later, Marek Zidlicky sends a puck towards the net. It has eyes, making it's way passed Svedberg on the glove side and finding the back of the net. Detroit cuts the lead back to two.
There was some definite pressure in the Boston zone down the stretch. The fans were feeling it. You were feeling it (c'mon, admit it). And Torey Krug was feeling it a LOT.
In the end though, Boston was able to hold off a flurry of Red Wings chances with Howard and Gustavsson both on the bench, and leave TD Garden two points higher in the standings. Boston tamed the league's best powerplay, and defeated Detroit in regulation despite being out-shot 39-30. Paillelujah!