Bruins Take Season Series in OT

It was a much closer score in the Red Wings’ second game this week against the Boston Bruins, but once again a timely goal by Bruins captain Joe Thornton decided the game. Boston took a 2-1 decision in overtime.

The Red Wings held a 1-0 lead for most of the game, thanks to a nice goal by Kirk Maltby 8:00 into the game. Steve Yzerman intercepted the puck in the Boston zone and sent a pass up to Ray Whitney. Maltby picked up the rebound from Whitney’s shot and fired it past goalie Andrew Raycroft.

Just as it was in the Wednesday matchup between these two teams, the goaltending was very good on both sides. Raycroft was continuously in just the right position to block oncoming shots, while Curtis Joseph was in fine acrobatic form, sprawling and twisting to block the shots the Bruins were sending in from strange angles.

In spite of the quality of the Bruins’ scoring chances, Boston wasn’t able to get on the board until they were handed a five-minute power play. Pavel Datsyuk was given a boarding major and a game misconduct for an ordinary-looking check against Michal Grosek.

The penalty-killers did a good job for the most part, but they did give up the lead when Marty Lapointe put the rebound of a bad angle shot by Mike Knuble past Joseph on the glove side.

Detroit controlled the play for the last several minutes of the third period, but Raycroft’s solid play sent the game to overtime. Halfway through the extra session, Dan McGillis carried the puck up the right side of Detroit’s zone, luring everyone towards him, then made a back pass to Thornton coming through the slot with no one to cover him. Thornton easily put the puck into the mostly empty net.

Raycroft made 27 saves on the 28 shots he faced, while Joseph stopped 33 of 35.
The Red Wings have a few days off before their next game. They’ll be back in action Wednesday night when they face the Chicago Blackhawks at Joe Louis Arena.