Pavel Zacha lifts Bruins over Red Wings in overtime, 3-2

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Dec 3, 2024

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — The Bruins erased a one-goal, third-period deficit and Pavel Zacha scored at 2:15 of overtime to lift the B’s to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at TD Garden on Tuesday.

David Pastrnak knocked Alex DeBrincat off the puck — the Wings were furious there was no penalty — and he fed Zacha for the winner.

It was a fun end to a so-so game.

The game had all the makings of an early-week dud. With the typical city traffic, the Garden was barely half full at the first puck drop and the building quiet, the early play matched the ambience.

But the proceedings picked up a bit when Detroit scored the fist goal of the game at 7:31. Simon Edvinsson’s deflected pass found the dangerous Lucas Raymond in the slot and he buried it past Joonas Korpisalo, who could not recover in time to adjust to the deflection in front of him.

The B’s didn’t waste time in evening it up. Nikita Zadorov kept the puck in at the right point and Brad Marchand collected the loose puck. With Zadorov into the high slot, Marchand fed him and the big defenseman blasted a one-timer past Ville Husso for his second goal of the season at 9:15. His first came last Wednesday on an empty-netter against the Islanders.

The play had been even to that point, but the B’s started to tilt the ice in their favor. They wound up with a 12-6 shot advantage in the first but could not get the go-ahead goal, despite a late-period power play.

At 12:41 of the second, it appeared that the Wings had retaken the lead on their first power play when Marco Kasper redirected Jonathan Berggren pass through Korpisalo’s pads. But after a lengthy review, it was determined that Erik Gustafsson was offside and the goal came off the board.

Zadorov then tempted the Wings’ fourth-ranked PP when he then took a slashing penalty, but the B’s were able to kill that off, too.

Zadorov had been vexed about something before he served his penalty and, when he came out of the box, he nudged Ben Chiarot after he tried and failed to beat an icing call. Chiarot threw a punch at Zadorov and then Cristian Fischer jumped in to help Chiarot, but in the end Chiarot and Zadorov received matching double minors.

The B’s had a chance for another power play when J.T. Compher held Marc McLaughlin. But on the delayed call, Brandon Carlo was nailed for interference to nullify the advantage. It was the that kind of night.

The third period has not been kind to the B’s, especially at the Garden, and at 1:19 of the third. Michael Rasmussen found a too-open Raymond in the slot and he beat Korpisalo to the glove side for the 2-1 Wings lead.

Considering the B’s had scored only two goals in the third period at the Garden this year, it didn’t look great for the home team, especially when Charlie McAvoy took an offensive zone penalty. They killed that off, and Korpisalo made a great blocker save on DeBrincat off a rebound to keep it one-goal deficit.

And when Chiarot took an interference penalty on Pastrnak, the B’s power play, ranked 32nd in the league going against Detroit’s 32nd ranked penalty kill, cashed in.

It didn’t take long. Just as Chiarot was taking a seat, Trent Frederic won a faceoff back to Mason Lohrei, who fired a shot to the net that Justin Brazeau deflected home, his sixth of the season.

Pastrnak drew another penalty on Gustafsson with 5:00 left in regulation, but they did not test Husso on it.

With less than two minutes left in regulation, the refs missed a Chiarot high-stick on Zacha that could well have been a double minor, but they played on.