The Detroit Red Wings allowed the game-tying goal midway through the third period Tuesday, against a good team, in an environment where they have had little success.
It might have caused them to fold in the past, like they have multiple times this season. This time, they were resilient, and they hope it’s a sign of growth.
Marc Staal scored with 8:27 remaining in the third period and the Red Wings defeated the Boston Bruins 2-1 at TD Garden.
“It wasn’t pretty, but it was the kind of win we needed,” Dylan Larkin said. “It feels great to grind one out and get a greasy win here.”
The Red Wings (11-9-3) equaled a season-high three-game winning streak. The Bruins fell to 11-8-0.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 41 saves, allowing only David Pastrnak’s goal at 6:20 of the third period during a five-on-three power play. But Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill lauded the strong defensive effort in front of him.
“We gave up shots, but we didn’t give up a whole bunch of chances,” Blashill said. “When we did, he did a good job.
“I thought we protected the back post pretty well. I thought we took away the real Grade A chances. For me this would be more of a team defense success than just one player. Certainly, Alex did a good job. The game against St. Louis (4-2 win last Wednesday), he stole us a game. That wasn’t the case tonight. I thought we played very good defensively, much better than we have.”
Blashill noted the Bruins were missing “a hell of a player” in Brad Marchand, serving a three-game suspension for slew-footing.
“But with that said, I don’t want to take anything away from our players,” Blashill said. “I think we did a really good job. We’d like a little more offensive pressure. We’d like a few more chances. … But from a defensive standpoint, with the exception of a little bit in the second period when we left the puck in our zone when we should’ve gotten it out, I thought we did a much better job of playing good defensively, of managing the puck at our line, of getting it in at their line and overall being pretty disciplined. We did a pretty good job of what I would call winning hockey.”
The Red Wings were 1-11-2 in their previous 14 games in Boston, dating back to the 2014 playoffs.
“It’s a tough building to play in. It’s a momentum building,” Larkin said. “You see when we take penalties and they get on the power play they get moving around, their big guys move the puck so well. It’s hard and we did a great job staying disciplined early. We played a great road game and got great goaltending. It wasn’t the prettiest win but a win our hockey team needed to build confidence that even when we don’t play our best, we can grind out a great defensive effort and our goalie’s going to be there for us.”
The Red Wings were 1-6-1 in their previous eight road games.
“A week ago, I don’t think we played as mature as we did tonight,” Blashill said. “I think some of it stems from the fact that we got a chance to practice, we got a chance to get our habits back, we got a chance to get our structure back.
“We’ve got a lot of young players in important roles, and I think even as a team sometimes, veteran players have to kind of remind themselves what it takes to be a winning-type hockey team. I thought we took steps forward that way.”
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