Bruins snap Wings’ six-game win streak on Hockey Fights Cancer Night

 

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT – The Red Wings saw their six-game win streak snapped Saturday night at the hands of the Boston Bruins.

The B’s, led by a returning Tuukka Rask in goal and a suffocating style of play, topped the Wings, 1-0. Tim Schaller scored the game’s only goal. Jimmy Howard turned away 35 of 36 shots, including 17 of 18 in the second period.

“They were hungrier than we were all over the ice,” Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “I think Zetterberg’s line had a lot of compete tonight. As a result, we weren’t having any zone time. Maybe a player here and player there, but as a group, they out competed us. I thought they were hungrier than us. WE should’ve known better than that, but in the end, wasn’t good enough.”

Blashill was impressed with Howard’s game, too.

“I thought Jimmy was real good again, he continues to play real good. As we’ve talked about lots, our goaltending has been excellent.”

Photos by Andrew Knapik/MiHockey

The Red Wings continue to struggle on the power play, as the team went 0-for-4, continuing an 0-for-17 stretch from the last four games.

“I think our power play – we’ve gotta do a better job,” Wings forward Justin Abdelkader said. “Our zone entries weren’t great tonight. We weren’t as crisp as we have been.”

It took the Wings a while to get going early on, as the Bruins held a 5-0 shot advantage through the first half of the opening period, but Detroit tightened the gap to 8-6 by the end of the frame.

In fact it also took a while for the game’s first goal, 37:11 to be exact. Boston’s Tim Schaller threw a puck on goal from a bad angle to the left of Howard and it trickled through him to give the B’s a 1-0 advantage with just 2:49 left in the second stanza.

“On the goal, I thought I took everything away on the short side, and somehow he managed to bank it in off the post, off my rear end and in,” Howard said.

One replay of the goal seemed to have a Bruins’ player with his back foot off the ice when entering the zone before the goal. The Wings challenged the goal on the basis that the initial zone entry was offsides, but to no avail.

“We had it with the back foot off… I was told – they had it as on,” Blashill said. “We felt it was off.”

Howard said the Wings got away from some of the things they were doing during the six-game win streak, things his team will need to do Sunday against the Florida Panthers.

“I think when were playing really well, we’re throwing pucks to the net, we’re getting second opportunities, we’re getting in on the forecheck and playing a lot more in the opposing team’s end,” Howard said.

Notes: Saturday night also marked the Red Wings’ annual Hockey Fights Cancer Night. The Wings wore purple jerseys in warmups, welcomed a number of those affected by cancer to the game, gave away purple rally towels and held a moment of applause for all affected by cancer among other things.