Fansided

Friday Feature: Boston Bruins Fight Back to Down Red Wings

By Lindsay Duston |

After a sloppy start and unimpressive play, a win against the Detroit Red Wings seemed impossible. But, then all fans remembered that you can never count the Boston Bruins out. The B’s came back with a surge of energy, overpowered the Wings and took a crucial two points.

“I really felt that once [Detroit] scored that second goal, you saw a real urgency on our bench, which is a great sign. The guys said, listen, we’ve got to get going here — and some guys scored some big goals for us.” Claude Julien

There was a lot of controversy prior to the game over who we would see on the ice. Brett Connolly was ready to make his debut, but adding him to the lineup would mean someone sitting out – but who? Torey Krug was also under the weather so Morrow was called up from Providence and expected to take the ice. When game time came though, Krug and Connolly were in, Morrow, Paille and Talbot were out.  

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Fans and media alike were all outraged by Julien’s decision to play Campbell in place of Talbot. But alas, Claude’s man-crush won and the energetic, driven and team-oriented Talbot got to watch from the stands.

Another decision that was up in the air was the lines. Krejci was ready to play center and started off with Eriksson and Soderberg as his wingers. First shift out and it was quite apparent that this line was not going to work. In the first period, they tallied -0- shots on goal and were not working well together at all. Soderberg has noted that he prefers center over wing and it really showed. Connolly also started off on the fourth line with Kelly and Campbell. He showed grit, energy and skill that gave the B’s some hope.

Heading into the second scoreless, the Bruins were left without Bergeron who had been a victim of an “unnoticed” high stick in the first and required 20+ stitches! His absence from the ice allowed the lines to be tweaked, but brought the Bruins to a 2 goal deficit.

The third period is where it all turned around. Bergeron was back – stitches, full visor and all! Krejci had assumed his winger position with Bergy and Marchand, Soderberg was back at center and Connolly was on a line with Spooner and Lucic – Pastrnak had been knocked around quite a bit during the game. It was time for the B’s to show up and show up they did.

Soderberg got the B’s on the board with a PPG, followed by an assist in Eriksson’s goal to tie up the game. But it was Zach Trotman who would be the hero of the night, getting his first NHL career goal – the game winner – at 17:52 in the third. The Wings made a critical mistake, sending out 7 players (pulled goalie) and Kelly played some mean D in the last few minutes to hold the score at 3-2.

With this win, the Bruins are now tied with Detroit in the standings. The Senators won in OT last night (thanks a lot Tampa Bay!), so they are still three points behind. Both teams have a game in hand so all points are necessary. However, there were a lot of shakeups in the standings last night and with four games left (8 points potential) better playoff positioning is not out of reach.

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