Bruins hold off Red Wings for New Year’s Eve road win
Charlie Coyle scored in the third period to lift the Boston Bruins to a 5-3 road win over the Detroit Red Wings on New Year’s Eve.
Mere seconds after the faceoff, Coyle finished a centering feed from Charlie McAvoy after the defenseman carried the puck down low. Coyle now has 13 goals in 35 games for the Bruins, a 30-goal pace.
The Chuckie connection. pic.twitter.com/skd1f8MMV4
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 1, 2024
Trent Frederic scored twice for the B’s in the win, his eighth and ninth of the season. He’s now on pace for 21 goals, which would be a new career-high for him. Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman, meanwhile, stopped 25 of 28 shots (.893) to improve to 18-10-2 on the season. The Bruins are now 22-7-6 as a team, maintaining their narrow lead atop the Atlantic Division.
The teams almost made it through the first period without a goal, but Frederic was able to sneak in his first of the night with just 52 seconds to go. Frederic got behind the Detroit defense as David Pastrnak lofted a heads-up pass over everyone and into the offensive zone, where Frederic finished with the backhand to make it 1-0 Bruins.
Left it to Freddy to finish off that first 💯 pic.twitter.com/w0pdfTn58Y
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 31, 2023
Federic scored his second goal just 4:25 into the second period, this time with a simple wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that found its way through traffic and past Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon to They call him Freddy New Year 🎆 pic.twitter.com/8kXZAQ2iip
The Red Wings battled back to tie the game later in the second period, with two goals in a span of 3:41. First, Jake Walman Wally nets his 9th. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/Kvfibb5eDd Benny. 💪 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/88LDyAXEkz
Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery challenged the goal for goaltender interference. The replay revealed that the Red Wings’ Michael Rasmussen made some contact with Swayman just prior to the puck going in the net, but the officials ruled that there was not enough contact to rule goaltender interference, so the goal stood. The teams went into the second intermission tied 2-2.
Benny. 💪 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/88LDyAXEkz
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) December 31, 2023
The Bruins would add two empty-net goals, one each for Jake DeBrusk and Pavel Zacha. Detroit briefly made it a one-goal game with under two minutes to go in regulation, but Zacha’s empty-netter sealed the win for Boston.
Up Next: The Bruins will stay on the road and get back to action on Tuesday, when they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets in their first game of 2024.
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Matt Dolloff is a writer and podcaster for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Check out all of Matt’s content.