The Bruins did not start Saturday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings like they wanted to atone for their performance in Thursday’s loss to the Edmonton Oilers, but they still managed to send everyone home happy.
After erasing an early 2-0 deficit with a dominant second period, Garnet Hathaway gave the B’s their first lead of the game with his first goal as a Bruin with 6:06 left in regulation. Hathaway scored on a rebound of an AJ Greer shot off goalie Magnus Hellberg to give the B’s a 3-2 lead at the Garden, capping off a strong afternoon for the fourth line.
It seemed like any time the B’s needed a shift in momentum, the fourth line was there to make it happen. That the trio of Greer, Hathaway and Tomas Nosek got the winner was fitting.
“Really deserving. I thought they were our best line all night long,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “Right from the first shift of the game where I thought they got us going north and they had a lot of good looks and spent a lot of time in the O-zone, despite the fact that I start them in the D-zone a lot of times.”
Linus Ullmark, terrific in the third period, then shut it down the rest of the way for the B’s 50th win of the season.
The B’s are the fastest team to reach that milestone. And with the Islanders’ loss to the Capitals on Saturday night, the B’s became the first team to clinch a playoff spot.
The half century mark was nice, meanwhile, but not a focus for the B’s.
“Fifty wins is amazing,” said Greer. “I love playing for this team, I love wearing the Bruins logo and, especially with the results, it’s been an amazing journey so far. But we’re not focused on anything right now besides playing the right way for 60 minutes.”
That wasn’t quite the case on Saturday.
The first 10 minutes represented some of the worst hockey in what has been a magical B’s season season thus far. On an early power play chance, zone entries remained problematic. David Krejci’s soft aerial pass was picked off just inside the Detroit blue line by Andrew Copp and he immediately went the other way on a 2-on-1 break. Copp kept it for himself and beat Ullmark from the right wing just 1:36 into the game.
It would get worse. When Krejci was called for a hooking penalty, the Wings made it 2-0 at 4:32. With Derek Forbort, one of the B’s stalwarts on the penalty kill, taking his turn in the defense rotation to sit, the Wings had terrific puck movement on the PP. Eventually, David Perron made a beautiful backdoor pass to Alex Chiasson for the tap-in.
The B’s were discombobulated for the first half of the opening period, turning the puck over and losing battles all over the place. At one point, the Wings held a 12-5 shot advantage. At a TV timeout, Patrice Bergeron gathered his teammates to tell them to park the two goals against and move forward.
“It was just a reset,” said Bergeron, who’d be heard from again later in the game. “It’s 10 minutes in. There’s a lot of time and just go back to being in the moment, forgetting what was behind us and going back to playing our game, going through our process and our details. And that I believe in who we are and what we do.”
The B’s started to gain a territorial advantage in the second half of the first period but then poured it on in the second period, outshooting the Wings 18-2 and erasing their two-goal lead.
Just when it looked like Hellberg might steal the game, the B’s finally got on the board at 12:43 of the second. Trent Frederic and Pavel Zacha worked the puck along the left boards before Charlie Coyle dropped it for Hampus Lindholm at the blue line. Lindholm sifted a shot through traffic for his eighth of the season.
Then came a major turning point in the game.
It appeared Dylan Larkin had immediately given the Wings a two-goal lead again when he banked a one-timer in off Ullmark. But what could not be heard over the din was that Larkin had already been called for slashing Krejci’s stick out of his hands and the B’s went back on the PP.
On the advantage, Bergeron redirected a Jake DeBrusk pass through Hellberg’s pads to tie it 2-2 at 14:11.
In the third, it took the B’s a while to get going after they took an early penalty and Ullmark had to make a brilliant glove save on Chiasson when the score was still deadlocked. But with the minutes dwindling down, Charlie McAvoy sent the fourth line off on a 3-on-2, which the group executed perfectly. From the middle, Tomas Nosek fed Greer on the right wing and Greer’s deflected shot produced a room service rebound for Hathaway to score.
Given the situation and how his line played all day, it was a nice time for Hathaway to get his first as a Bruin.
“We played to the identity we want to,” said Hathaway. “(Nosek’s) been great on the dot for a lot of games now. Greersy gets on every puck and forechecks really well. We started making plays and I can feed off that. Our game is moving through the zones trying to get in the O-zone and we felt we were able to wear them down tonight. Getting the goal for the line was just the cherry on top for us.”