Boston, MA – Through the Boston Bruins‘ first seven games Captain Patrice Bergeron had just three points to his name, all assists. Thursday night he added four more points to his stat sheet, all goals. Three of which came on power-plays giving the Bruins a solid 5-1 win over the visiting Detroit Red Wings in front of 17,850 at TD Garden.
The Bruins, who’d been off since last Saturday’s 3-2 win over Florida, were a tad bit sluggish to start. The Red Wings, who last played on Tuesday, a 3-0 loss in Toronto, came out buzzing. Detroit centerman Robby Fabbri hit the post with the first Red WIngs’ shot on goal just about a minute and a half into the game.
Erik Haula was called for Tripping at 2:55 giving the Red Wings the game’s first power-play. Boston held Detroit to only one shot on goal during the man advantage.
The Wings would only be credited with one more shot on Bruins rookie goalie Jeremy Swayman for the remainder of the period. As the tide had swung into the Bruins’ favor.
Vladislav Namestnikov was sent off at 10:58 for Playing Without a Helmet. The Bruins wasted little time in capitalizing on their first power-play of the game.
Bergeron buried a Brad Marchand pass past Thomas Greiss (32 saves) from the right slot to give the Bruins the 1-0 lead. Marchand and defenseman Charlie McAvoy assisted on Bergeron’s first goal of the 2021-22 season.
Boston had another power-play at 14:14 when Nick Leddy was sent off for tripping McAvoy after Boston had steady pressure in the Wings zone. The Bruins put four shots on Greiss but to no avail.
Swayman stonewalled Lucas Raymond on a two-on-one bid that lead to an Interference call on Tyler Bertuzzi at 9:39 of the second. Bertuzzi stole the puck from McAvoy at the Bruins’ blue line and dished it to Raymond. Swayman made the split save with his outstretched leg while Bertuzzi took out McAvoy in his attempt to back check.
Once again Bergeron and the Bruins made the Red Wings pay. At 10:52 Bergeron deposited a Marchand feed from behind the Detroit net past Greiss to make it 2-0 Bruins.
A Holding call on Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for October, gave the Bruins yet another power-play opportunity at 17:48.
Just under a minute later, the hats rained down on TD Garden ice as Bergeron wristed another Marchand feed past Greiss for his seventh career hat-trick. Bergeron became the seventh member of the Bruins to score a power-play hat-trick, joining luminaries like Cam Neely (twice) and Bobby Orr.
It wasn’t all peaches n’ creme for Swayman in earning his second win of the season. Swayman robbed Raymond again on a point-blank shot while the rookie was all alone in front. Swayman (14 saves) didn’t have to work much but when he did it was a lot of work.
Penalties almost tripped up the Bruins in the third period as they suffered three straight calls in the opening seven minutes. Boston successfully killed off a Connor Clifton Tripping penalty to open the third period.
At 6:08 David Pastrnak was whistled for High-Sticking. Then Bergeron was called for Tripping at 6:59 giving the Red Wings a five-on-three for a minute.
Raymond finally put the puck past Swayman at 7:46 to cut the Bruins lead to 3-1. The fourth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft buried a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle as Filip Hronek fired a cross-ice pass high to low to Raymond. Raymond’s fifth goal of the season was assisted by Hronek and Seider.
Any momentum gained by Detroit was quickly stuffed when Mike Reilly‘s first goal as a member of the Bruins came just twenty-four seconds later. The short-handed goal was set up by a long clearing pass from Tomas Nosek at the left face-off dot to a streaking Curtis Lazar at the red line. Lazar raced in on Greiss with Wings defenseman Nick Leddy on his back. Greiss made the stop on Lazar but Reilly was there to lift the loose puck over Greiss to make it 4-1 Bruins.
After a four-on-four stretch, Boston’s Matt Grzelcyk (Roughing) and Detroit’s Hronek (Unsportsmanlike Conduct), Bergeron struck again for the fourth and final time of the evening.
Reilly carried into the Wings zone and dropped a pass through his legs to a trailing Marchand. Marchand fired a cross-ice pass to a charging Bergeron who beat Greiss through the legs with a shot from the right face-off dot to cap off his second career four-goal game.
The Bruins improved to 4-0 at home this season and 5-3 overall. Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy was pleased to see his team get back to basics.
“If you want to score in this league you have to get inside at some point. It’s good to see it,” said Cassidy. “I thought our power-play has practiced better this week. Good to get back to what we do well.”
The Bruins travel to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Saturday night at 7:00 pm.
