B’s keep on rolling along
Rask adds to streak in victory
DETROIT — The Bruins have found ways around injuries and a stiff suspension to become the most dangerous team in the NHL.
The B’s wrapped up Brad Marchand’s five-game suspension with a 3-2 victory against the Detroit Red Wings last night at Little Caesars Arena.
The Bruins are 32-11-8 on the season, 18-1-4 in their past 23 games and 4-1 with Marchand off the grid for an ugly elbowing incident against the Devils’ Marcus Johansson on Jan. 23 at the Garden.
The Bruins will look to make it four straight tonight with Marchand, the team’s leading scorer (50 points, 21 goals), back on the first line against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
“The whole year, I think our focus has been on our game and how we want to play the game and not really worry about who we are playing against,” said Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, who finished with 26 saves and upped his unbeaten streak to 21 games (19-0-2). “As long as we are happy with our game, the wins will keep coming, and I think the way we practice it starts there. We push the pace there, and it transfers to games, and lately our starts have gotten better, and when we got down a goal, we just kept plugging.”
Left winger Danton Heinen scored the game-winner on a fine collaboration with Austin Czarnik and Sean Kuraly at 8:21 of the third period. Czarnik made a hustle play behind the cage and pushed the puck to Kuraly, who fed Heinen in the slot. The rookie fired a wrist shot that beat Jimmy Howard high to the far side.
“They scrummed the puck out and Kurls found me in the slot and it went in,” said Heinen. “Not pretty but I’ll take it for sure.”
Heinen’s 12th became the difference-maker because Frans Nielsen tipped a Dylan Larkin shot past Rask during a 6-on-5 situation at 18:36 of the third.
“As coaches, you are always looking at something, and that is something we are going to look at,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said of the 6-on-5 goal against. “St. Louis got one (last week), and we are pretty good at it, and we won the game, but we will look at areas where we can be more aggressive.”
The Red Wings opened the scoring on the power play at 2:08 of the second period. Rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy has just begun serving time for hooking when right winger Martin Frk beat Rask for his ninth of the season.
The B’s tied the game at 1 on an even-strength goal by Kuraly at 12:11. David Pastrnak swept deep into the right circle and made a cross-slot drop pass to Kuraly at the left dot. Kuraly onetimed a slap shot that beat Howard on the stick side for his fourth of the season and first since Thanksgiving.
“It was a really good play by Pasta, and he had the chance to shoot there, too,” Kuraly said. “He kind of looked it off and sells it and passed over to me in a really good scoring area.”
The Bruins went up 2-0 on an opportunistic play by center David Krejci at 14:17. Jake DeBrusk was in some mayhem around the Detroit crease and backhanded the puck to Krejci in the slot. He fired a wrist shot for his 10th of the season.