Bruins clip Red Wings in Detroit on strength of Marchand game-winner
The Boston Bruins are 2-0 under interim head coach Joe Sacco, holding on for a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night.
Brad Marchand scored the game-winning goal with 8:30 left in regulation. Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman, meanwhile, turned aside 18 of 19 Red Wings shots (.947) to improve his record to 6-7-2 on the season. The B’s closed strong, out-shooting the Wings 13-4 in the third period and killing off a late penalty.
On their third shot of the game, the Bruins struck first, and for the second straight goal, they accomplished it on the power play. Just as Tyler Johnson fed it toward the crease from the faceoff circle, Justin Brazeau crashed the net and tipped the puck home to give the B’s a 1-0 lead.
Despite cashing in first, the Bruins couldn’t quite hold their lead into the first intermission. Late in the period, Lucas Raymond beat Swayman from the slot after Vladimir Tarasenko won a puck battle along the half boards and fed him in front, tying the game 1-1 with just 58 seconds left. That would be the score after 20 minutes.
Brazeau appeared to be shaken up as he was slow to get back on defense prior to the Raymond goal, but he stayed in the game into the second period. The teams played a scoreless middle 20 minutes, with Boston out-shooting Detroit 11-7.
The Bruins put the pressure on Detroit to start the third period, generating eight of the first nine shots on goal. Marchand cashed in on the attack with the eventual game-winner, his sixth of the season, when he took a pass from behind the net and ripped a wrist shot short-side, from the faceoff dot to the top-right corner past Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot.
Marchand took a two-minute minor penalty for hooking with just 1:22 left in the third period and the Detroit net empty, creating a 6-on-4 situation. Defenseman Nikita Zadorov blocked a shot and cleared the puck to kill some clock. Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider bombed a slap shot from up high and hit the crossbar, then Swayman alertly covered the puck after it bounced behind him in the crease.
The B’s successfully killed off the remaining time to come out of Detroit with a victory. Up Next, they return home to take on the Vancouver Canucks next Tuesday night at TD Garden.
Matt Dolloff is a writer and digital content producer for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read all of his articles here.
