The Bruins and Detroit Red Wings are now done with their season series. But if the two teams should happen to meet come April, it should make for some great entertainment.
The B’s earned a split in the series at 2-2 with a hard-earned 5-3 victory a Little Caesars Arena on Sunday, fighting through a quick turnaround, some playoff-like nastiness and some controversy that went against them.
Trent Frederic scored twice and Charlie Coyle put the B’s ahead for good with the third period go-ahead goal, pushing their win streak to three games.
After the B’s coughed up a two-goal lead in the second period, they regained it 2:52 into the third on a set play off an offensive zone faceoff. Coyle won the draw back to Brad Marchand, who dished it to an oncoming Charlie McAvoy. The defenseman took it deep before feeding it back to Coyle, who ripped a one-timer home from the slot.
The B’s killed off McAvoy penalty and played some stout defense down the stretch before Jake DeBrusk gave the B’s their two-goal lead back with an empty-netter from center ice with 2:01 left.
But the B’s work was not done. DeBrusk took a tripping penalty and, on the 6-on-4, J.T. Compher made it 4-3 when he jammed home a loose puck.
Finally, Pavel Zacha ended it with another empty-netter, from his own zone with 24 seconds left.
The first period was a contentious one, but the B’s had the last laugh in the final minute of the period. The nastiness started when Ben Chiarot threw a couple of straight right hands at Morgan Geekie after a Geekie was jamming at the puck under goalie Alex Lyon, getting the extra two minutes.
A little later, Charlie McAvoy got engaged with Alex DeBrincat in a similar net-front scrum. McAvoy looked like he was going to get the only minor until, with McAvoy tied up by a linesman, DeBrincat took a cheap slash at the back of McAvoy’s legs, and he didn’t get away it.
After both teams survived power plays –two for Detroit, one for the B’s – it looked like the teams would head into the first intermission with a scoreless game.
But in the final minute and during a line change, David Pastrnak sent a long, high flip pass up the middle of the ice to Trent Frederic, who had a partial breakaway. With Chiarot closing on his left, Frederic took it in tight and roofed a backhander over Lyon’s glove. Frederic then ran over Lyon, who was out of his crease. After Frederic jumped up from the collision, he looked at Chiarot and offered him out. Chiarot didn’t take him up on it at the time. Lyon, meanwhile, was shaken up but stayed in the game.
Frederic wasn’t done. He doubled the lead at 4:25 of the second period when he muscled his way through a Dylan Larkin check along the right boards and gained the zone. Without another play, he fired the puck at the net and it beat Lyon through the pads. It was his Frederic’s ninth of the season.
The B’s nearly made it 3-0 when Georgii Merkulov looked like he his first NHL goal on his stick in the low slot but he clanged the post to Lyon’s right.
After Pastrnak was called for crosschecking in front of the B’s net – he somehow knocked over 6-foot-7 Michael Rasmussen with a light shove to the hip – Jeremy Swayman was called on to make some huge stops to keep the Wings off the board. He did, but the PP gave the Wings some momentum.
They finally cut the lead in half at 13:01 after the B’s kicked the puck around in the neutral zone and the Wings went on the attack. It eventually led to a bar-down shot that beat Swayman to make it 2-1.
The Wings then tied it up with 3:18 left in the period on a controversial goal. Chiarot beat Swayman over the glove arm, but coach Jim Montgomery understandably challenged the call after video review showed that Rasmussen’s stick had made contact with Swayman’s glove arm, the very same appendage with which Swayman tried to made the save. But after lengthy review, it was ruled on the that the contact was made outside the crease, though Swayman still had his right skate in the crease. Later word from the NHL was that the “actions of Brandon Carlo contributed to Michael Rasmussen’s stick making contact” with Swayman, thus the upheld goal.
Detroit was awarded a power play on the failed challenge, but it was eventually wiped out with a Daniel Sprong trip and the teams began the third all knotted up. And while the B’s might have had a beef on the upheld goal, Detroit had taken control of much of the play.