In Boston, the Detroit Red Wings’ Ville Husso made 25 saves in a 5-2 win over the Bruins in a Friday matinee.
“We are a good team. If we bring it every night, every day, we can beat any team in this league,” Husso said. “The last two games, I feel like we’ve been outstanding defensively and got two big wins, so we just got to keep building and moving forward.”
J.T. Compher scored at 5:13 of the opening stanza to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead.
Detroit improved to 10-6-3 off their second straight win since coming back from Stockholm.
For the Bruins, the loss ended a point streak of seven games, 5-0-2, the loss is only their second in regulation.
Alex DeBrincat doubled the advantage at 15:01 to send the game to the middle frame with Detroit up, 2-0.
“I really thought the group did a good job of digging in after that [Heinen’s goal],” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “And again, the momentum the power play can get you when it’s clicking.”
In the middle frame, the Bruins’ Jake DeBrusk scored with three minutes gone in the period to trim the deficit to 2-1.
“They played fast, we didn’t,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “The execution on the forecheck, the execution in the neutral zone; the only part of our game that I thought was good was our breakouts. Power play wasn’t good (1-for-3), penalty kill wasn’t good (4-for-6). You’re not going to win a lot of hockey games when that’s the case.”
Detroit replied at 13:24 to restore the two-goal lead on a strike by Robby Fabbri .
Boston dropped to 14-2-3.
“It’s always good to see it go in,” DeBrusk said. “You want to do it in a winning manner, though, which obviously didn’t happen. It’s been hard to get those in the net this year, so it’s nice to have back-to-back [goals], personally.”
Danton Heinen‘s goal at 4:12 of the third shaved the deficit back to one, 3-2.
The Boston momentum was cut short when Dylan Larkin struck 55 seconds later for a 4-2 score at 5:08.
“It’s a big feat,” Larkin said. “It’s pretty amazing what these guys have been able to do early in the season again, and we’ve [defeated] them twice now, and I think this is a big one for us. Winning in this building, and an emotional game.”
David Perron hit into an empty net for the 5-2 final at 18:15.
“We didn’t give them a lot of 5-on-5 (chances),” Red Wings forward Andrew Copp said. “Special teams were good, power play came up huge tonight, so I think we know anytime playing these guys is going to be a huge challenge, so good to see us rise up to that challenge.”
Jeremy Swayman made 24 saves in the Boston loss.
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