Postgame: Bruins @ Red Wings – 4/2

I’ve said a lot of this via Twitter already but I’m going to collect my postgame thoughts here.

Detroit got outplayed for roughly 50 minutes tonight, but pulled it together in the last ten to rally from down 2-1 for a 3-2 win. After skating in circles in their own end for much of the night, as soon as they got the lead they suddenly were stronger on the boards and clogged up the middle better. You shouldn’t be able to win with a ten minute effort. Tonight they did.

They got some help early, though, as the Bruins had an apparent goal waived off for goalie interference where there was none. We’ve seen that enough as Red Wings fans that you had to figure one would eventually go in their favor, but that doesn’t make it the right call.

Gustav Nyquist… What more can be said about this kid. Scores the game-winner, blowing past Zdeno Chara and then snapping a shot past Tuukka Rask. That’s his six GWG in 51 games this season. He’ll play at most 57 games, meaning he’ll finish the year having scored the game-winner in over 10% of his games played.

Not only did Nyquist remain on fire, so did the Kid Line, as Tomas Tatar and Tomas Jurco scored Detroit’s first two goals. Tatar actually did most of the work on Jurco’s, breaking free of a headlock to kick the puck over to Jurco to knock past Rask.

Not to be lost in celebrating the kids, Jimmy Howard stood on his head tonight, stopping 33 of 35 shots. This win doesn’t happen without him keeping the team in in.

With the win, the Red Wings now have a three point lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets for the first wild card playoff spot, with Columbus having a game in hand. Toronto is four back and Washington five with Detroit having a game in hand on the Leafs. Graham from Winging it in Motown says the Wings are projected to need seven more points to clinch a playoff spot. There are two games against last-place Buffalo and one against out-of-the-playoffs Carolina that should yield six points. That means three games to find one more point.