Recap: Bruins beat Red Wings, 4-1...FINALLY!

The Boston Bruins defeated the Detroit Red Wings for the first time in six games with a 4-1 win at the TD Garden this afternoon.

“We’ve had a couple of losses to them this year and wanted to make sure we took care of business in the right manner,” Head Coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Everyone was involved today so it was a good hockey game in that regard.”

It looked like it would be a repeat of last Sunday, as the Red Wings took an early lead in the first period with a shorthanded goal from Darren Helm. Helm intercepted a pass in Detroit’s defensive zone that Torey Krug was trying to make, leading Helm and Co. on a two-on-one breakout, where he put in his own rebound low on Tuukka Rask at 3:12 in the first period.

Despite the Red Wings’ goal, the Bruins dominated most of the play in the period, outshooting Detroit 18-6. Charlie Coyle had a heck of a showing, along with the rest of his line which created offensive zone pressure all game. That shot that just trickled over the goal line was the type of effort that he generated from the start to finish of the game.

Charlie McAvoy decided scoring is fun and netted his second goal of the season to tie the game at 8:01 in the second period. The Red Wings’ defense tried to clear a rebound from Brad Marchand’s shot, but the puck found the stick of McAvoy in the high slot where he put a wrist shot past the stick of Jonathan Bernier, to tie the game, 1-1.

The Bruins got their own shorthanded goal, thanks to Patrice Bergeron, to take the lead at 9:40 in the second period. Marchand won the puck battle along the corner-right boards to find Bergeron in the right-wing circle where he collected the puck from his skates and proceeded to the slot, switched to the backhand, and put a low shot past Bernier’s stick-side skate.

“Our top guys, they do their thing,” Cassidy said. “But I thought Coyle’s line did a good job establishing offensive zone possession time. They influenced momentum shifts for us.”

Charlie Coyle’s aggressive offense all game finally came to fruition as he gave the Bruins a two-goal cushion midway through the second period at 12:30. In the slot, Coyle redirected a blast from McAvoy to put the puck past Bernier’s stick, to make the score, 3-1.

In a similar play to Wednesday’s game, Marchand dangled through some Red Wings from inside the blue line and down the slot to feed a backhanded pass to David Pastrnak who in the low left-wing circle let a one-timer past Bernier for his 42^nd goal of the season, to make the final score, 4-1.

Game notes

• It was David Krejci’s 900^th game!
• The Bruins were 3 for 3 on the penalty kill.
• This game was Cassidy’s 200th career win as coach!
• Rask’s home point streak is now at 20 games, with a record of 14-0-6. He finished the night with a .962 SV%!
• Bergeron and Pastrnak extended their point streak to four games.

The Bruins return to action tomorrow to start a four-game road trip. Puck drops at 3:30 p.m. against the Rangers in New York for their 10th back-to-back set of games this season.

We’ll see you there!