Bruins’ 5-2 Win Over the Detroit Red Wings in GIFs

This Bruins’ fan had a great birthday!

No Bergeron and no Lucic on a team already struggling to score? Challenge accepted. The Bruins scored five goals in the win, beginning with Reilly Smith’s just 2:44 into the game. Playing on a line with Brad Marchand centered by David Krejci in the absence of Bergeron and Lucic, Smith scored from the point after a smart pinch by Dougie Hamilton set up a good offensive play.

The Red Wings tied the game on a very flukey goal from Justin Abdelkader at 11:21 of the first period.

The Bruins took control of the game late in the first period, getting the go-ahead goal from Gregory Campbell at 16:12. With Campbell out as the extra skater on a delayed penalty coming to Detroit, Campbell got the rebound of a Torey Krug shot that hit the inside of the post. The Bruins were up 2-1.

1:13 later, Carl Soderberg gave the Bruins a two goal lead.

With just over a minute left in the first period, the Red Wings nearly cut the lead in half when Tomas Tatar appeared to beat Tuukka Rask with a deflection. It was determined to be a high stick and the goal did not count, sending the Bruins into the first intermission with a 3-1 lead.

The Bruins had 19 shots in first period, which was their highest shot total in a single period thus far this season. The second period was scoreless for the five 15 minutes, but with about five minutes left, Marchand took a penalty. Tomas Tatar scored on the power play to make it 3-2.

Despite the penalty and lack of points in the game, Marchand was a presence all night. This hit on Brendan Smith is an excellent example.

Leading 3-2 going into the third period, the Bruins made immense strides toward finishing the game the right way when they scored on their first and only power play of the game. The goal was set up beautifully by David Krejci, and was a sniper of a shot from Seth Griffith to give the Bruins a 4-2 lead. It was Griffith’s first goal in 11 games.

The Bruins got a huge penalty kill on a Dougie Hamilton interference call late in the third period. With goaltender Jimmy Howard pulled for the extra skater, Chris Kelly gave the Bruins a 5-2 lead with an empty net goal at the 17:34 mark.

In the end, the Bruins out-shot Detroit 45-30, with every skater recording at least one shot. Now if only they could play like this every game!