The Boston Bruins faced their biggest road game of the season on Saturday night against the Detroit Red Wings. In fact, it was their biggest game of the season in terms of the Eastern Conference playoff race. Tied with Detroit in the standings for the two Eastern Conference wild-card spots, a regulation win was going to be huge for either team.
Behind three third-period goals and 41 saves from Jeremy Swayman, the Bruins rallied from a 2-1 deficit to secure their first road regulation win away from the TD Garden since Jan. 17 against the Chicago Blackhawks. They moved two points clear of the Red Wings and three clear of the New York Islanders, who are the first team out of postseason position. Here are three takeaways from an important Boston win.
Bruins again take too many penalties
Nobody parades to the penalty box this year like the Bruins. They are the best in the league at it. You knew that if they did it against the Red Wings, despite them struggling on the man advantage, it was going to catch up with them. It did.
Hampus Lindholm took the Bruins' third straight penalty from the end of the first period through the early part of the second period. After successfully killing off the first two Detroit power plays, and eventually found the back of the net. Lucas Raymond was the receiving end of a perfect pass from Andrew Copp, and he deposited it into the open net for a 1-0 lead.
Earlier Saturday, Sturm said that details and structure were going to matter. Those are two areas where the Black and Gold hurt themselves at times, and it was on display on Saturday night. However, they were able to overcome that with a strong third period.
Bruins win third period
Tied 1-1 through 40 minutes on the strength of power plays from both teams, you had a feeling that it was going to be a low-scoring game, and whoever won the 5-on-5 battle in the final period was going to win the game. That was the Bruins, who rallied in the final 14 minutes.
Alex DeBrincat had a shot from the point that went past Mark Kastelic, who screened Swayman, and found the back of the net when the puck deflected off Swayman's glove and landed just under the crossbar for a 2-1 lead. The Bruins responded when Elias Lindholm tied the game, and Nikita Zadorov scored the game-winner, before Marat Khusnutdinov sealed it with an empty net goal. Raise your hand if you had the Bruins scoring three goals in the final period?
Jeremy Swayman outduels John Gibson
Detroit finished with 43 shots on Swayman in the game, with 22 of those coming in the third period. Believe it or not, the only shot that got by him was DeBrincat's goal early in the period. He turned everything else away with some incredible glove saves. He had Red Wings players looking to the sky after a couple of the saves.
Down the other end, it was a different story. John Gibson made some big saves, but man, he would love to get the first two goals of the period back. Lindholm's was from a bad angle and went between his legs along the ice to tie the game. Three minutes later, Zadorov's second goal of the season was a shot from the circle that Detroit needed a save from Gibson. That was the difference.