Boston Bruins

Bruins Overcome Red Wings On Pavel Zacha’s OT Winner

Published

1 month ago

December 3, 2024

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AP Photo/Charles Krupa

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins played from behind for nearly the entirety of Tuesday night’s game at TD Garden until the very end when Pavel Zacha netted the game-winning goal at 2:15 of overtime, lifting them to a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

“That’s one of those games that you really have to win if you want to have a good season,” Zacha said. “That was something that we can build on.”

PAV PUT IT AWAY 🙌 pic.twitter.com/kfr7A6adWJ

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 4, 2024

The Bruins trailed the Red Wings 2-1 at the start of the third period after Lucas Raymond scored his second goal of the night for Detroit just 1:19 into the frame.

Boston continued to keep the game close and eventually found the equalizer from an unlikely source in the form of their league-worst power play.

Entering play on Tuesday, the Bruins had scored on just 11.9 percent of their previous chances on the man-advantage.

They even failed to capitalize on their two previous chances in the game, which made it all the more surprising when Justin Brazeau deflected a shot by Mason Lohrei past Detroit goalie Ville Husso for his sixth goal of the season, knotting the score with 10:28 remaining in regulation.

5️⃣5️⃣ finished it 🚨 pic.twitter.com/cC0V1AZntA

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 4, 2024

“It’s important, I think, with where we’re at right now,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said. “At that point of the game, when you’re down a goal, and the power play unit goes out there and puts one in, it lifts the team is what it does. They go out there and they get a goal, and it helps the spirit on the bench. It lifts people up, as opposed to bringing us down. That was a good sign.”

The Red Wings got on the board first after Raymond took advantage of a giveaway by the Bruins in their own end and put it behind Joonas Korpisalo to make it 1-0 Detroit at 7:31 of the first period. But soon after, Nikita Zadorov fired back for Boston.

Standing at the top of the face-off dots, Zadorov collected a feed from Brad Marchand and put all of his six-foot-six, 248-pound body behind a blast that Ville Husso barely saw go by him for his second goal of the year that evened the score at 9:15.

🚀🚀🚀🚀 pic.twitter.com/Fu3Ug1HBa9

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 4, 2024

“I liked that one. It went in the back of the net,” said Sacco. “He was engaged in the game tonight. He was physical, and he was just defending hard tonight. When he was on the ice, the opposition knew that he was playing.”

Detroit seemed to take the lead again in the middle of the second period when Marcus Kasper deflected a shot from Jonathan Berggren through Korpisalo’s legs for a power-play goal that would’ve made it 2-1 Red Wings if it had counted.

The Bruins challenged the call on the ice, and it was eventually overturned after a lengthy review as Erik Gustaffson was offside as the Red Wings entered the zone, keeping the score even for the time being.

Korpisalo finished the night with 25 saves on 27 shots, collecting his third straight win in net for the Bruins.

“He’s a very important player for us,” Sacco said. “He flies under the radar a little bit with the start that he had with our group. He deserves a lot of credit for the way he’s come in and played under tough situations.”

Without much action going on scoring-wise in the middle frame, the Bruins and Red Wings found other ways to entertain themselves, mostly with their fists.

Zadorov looked to be incensed when he delivered a crosscheck to Raymond’s back away from the ice. It was a penalty regardless, but Raymond gave it his best sell job as he went down to the ice to make sure Zadorov served two minutes in the box.

The Bruins successfully killed off the penalty against the high-powered Detroit power play, but it wasn’t long before Zadorov was in need of more disciplinary action.

As Zadorov and Ben Chiarot came together near the end boards on an icing call, the Detroit defenseman delivered a sucker punch to the back of his head. Both were assessed minor penalties for roughing after a brief tussle.

But whatever damage the two inflicted on one another was likely nothing compared to what Andrew Peeke endured, as the Bruins defenseman took a puck to the face twice in the game and was a frequent visitor of TD Garden’s resident dentist.

But Peeke’s pain wasn’t for nothing as the Bruins collected their third win in four games and their fifth since Sacco took over behind the bench on Nov. 19.

The Bruins will go for No. 6 when they visit the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow night.