Red Wings falter late, lose to Bruins in overtime
Detroit — The turkey probably isn’t going to taste as good for the Red Wings on Thanksgiving.
They let an apparent victory slip away Wednesday, as Boston rallied for a 3-2 overtime victory.
Frank Vatrano scored his second goal of the game, a redirected goal at 3:32 of overtime, giving the Bruins the victory.
Boston’s Colin Miller tied it at 2 at 18:16 of the third period, with a slap shot from the top of the circle that beat goalie Petr Mrazek.
BOX SCORE: Bruins 3, Red Wings 2, overtime
“I didn’t see the puck very well, didn’t see the guy coming,” Mrazek said. “It was a nice shot by him.”
The Red Wings held Boston’s top-ranked power play unit without a goal on three opportunities. The Red Wings outshot Boston 34-22,
There were a lot of positives for the Red Wings, despite the final score.
“We did a lot of great stuff,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “In a lot of ways, it was our best game of the year. You have to find a way to score that third goal. When they hang around there, that can happen.”
Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Tatar scored second-period goals to reverse a 1-0 Boston lead, and Mrazek stopped 19 shots as the Red Wings (11-8-3) saw their three-game winning streak end.
Boston (12-8-1) extended its winning streak to four.
“Tough loss,” said Datsyuk, whose goal was No. 300 in his career. “It looked like we played better. Sometimes it happens. You have to learn.”
Datsyuk joined Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, Alex Delvecchio, Sergei Fedorov and Henrik Zetterberg as the only Red Wings with at least 300 goals, 500 assists and 800 points.
“Big milestone for me,” Datsyuk said. “I’m happy.”
This was only Datsyuk’s seventh game since he returned from offseason ankle surgery, and he appears to be gaining strength and confidence with each game.
“His game is growing is every game,” Blashill said. “He’s been real good and he’ll continue to build on it.”
Datsyuk tied it at 1 when he wristed a shot just under the crossbar past goalie Jonas Gustavsson at 2:26.
Datsyuk’s goal began what was a dominant 20 minutes for the Red Wings. They outshot the Bruins 11-4 in the second period and only some good work from Gustavsson saved the Bruins.
Tatar finally broke the tie with his seventh goal, at 14:53.
Tatar came off the bench, took a pass from Riley Sheahan and beat Gustavsson from between the hashmarks.
“Very disappointing,” Mrazek said of the Red Wings settling for one point. “We played real well, had a lot of chances, and didn’t give them many opportunities. If we play like that every night, we’re going to win a lot of hockey games.”
Boston opened the scoring on Vatrano’s second goal of the season.
Bruins forward Joonas Kemppainen found Vatrano open in the high slot, and Vatrano beat Mrazek at 7:11 of the first period.
The Red Wings matched Boston in going 0-for-3 on the power play, including two chances in the third period on which the Red Wings could have taken command of the game.
“You want to convert for sure,” Blashill said. “Lots of times they’re pushing for (a shorthanded chance) and you get a little tentative because they’re kind of taking a few more chances.
“But you have to have a killer instinct and score that third goal, whether it’s 5-on-5 or on the power play.”
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
twitter.com/tkulfan