The Bruins Used Four Special Teams (2 SH & 2 PP) Goals to Beat the Red Wings 5-3

To beat a quality team like Detroit (36-17-11), especially in the second leg of a back-to-back, Boston (33-22-10) needed its vaunted depth to show up in a big way. Luckily for the B's it did as they beat the Red Wings 5-3 at TD Garden for their second win in as many afternoons (they rallied for a 3-2 overtime win vs. Flyers yesterday). A four-point weekend against two Eastern Conference foes should give them plenty of confidence with 17 games left in the regular season.

Perhaps most importantly, Niklas Svedberg (36 saves) started and he was pretty decent in picking up his first regulation and non-shutout win of the season. 10 Bruins had points and their special teams were money with two power-play goals and two shorthanded goals against the No. 1 power-play unit in the NHL. Daniel Paille was scratched for two games a few weeks ago but he has responded like the professional that he is with four goals in his last six games, including two today vs. Detroit.

With Red Wings backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson also getting the start, you had a feeling that it would be far from a 1-0 game. Brad Marchand continued his excellent weekend with his third goal in a row going back to yesterday's contest vs. Philadelphia. To change it up, this one was a shorthanded tally just 4:15 into the first period. Stephen Weiss turned the puck over in Boston's zone, Marchand went in on a breakaway and deked Gustavsson out of his hockey pants. His team-leading 22nd goal of the season was unassisted. Marchand has a four-game point-streak (5 goals, 1 assist) along with 10 points (7 goals, 3 assists) in the last 10 games.

University of Maine product Gustav Nyquist tied it at 7:01 with a wrist shot. His 22nd goal of the season was assisted by Kyle Quincey. Adam McQuaid had a game-high five blocks but he missed that out on that one and screened his own goalie in the process. No worries though, Boston answered with a power-play goal by David Pastrnak less than two minutes later for a 2-1 lead. His snipe from the left face-off circle was a bit of skill that you rarely if ever see from these B's. Pastrnak's eighth goal of the season was assisted by Milan Lucic and Reilly Smith.

Paille's pair of goals in the second period really opened things up for the home team. First, he had a breakaway and nothing went wrong for once. His fourth goal of the season was unassisted at 11:44 and it represented the first time in nearly two years (April 10, 2013 at NJ) that Boston scored two shorthanded goals in the same game. The Bruins are now tied with Toronto, Tampa Bay and Winnipeg for the third-most shorthanded goals in the league (7). After that highlight, Paille one-timed a pass from Max Talbot (game-high 7 hits) from in close for another goal at 18:39. Gregory Campbell had the second assist on Paille's seventh career two-goal game (1st since Dec. 14, 2011).

Jimmy Howard replaced Gustavsson (4 goals allowed, 19 saves) to start the third period and the blowout got interesting for a few seconds as Luke Glendening's routine shot found its way past Svedberg at 1:24. His ninth goal of the season was assisted by the magical Pavel Datsyuk. Boston's second power-play goal, this time from Loui Eriksson at 4:03 gave them back their three-goal cushion (5-2). Patrice Bergeron and Ryan Spooner (5-game point-streak) assisted on Eriksson's 16th goal of the season.

To conclude the special teams explosion, Detroit added their only power play goal of the affair. Newly acquired defenseman Marek Zidlicky scored his second goal in three games as a Red Wing. His shot from the point went top shelf on Svedberg; it was his sixth goal of the season with assists to Tomas Tatar and Datsyuk.

This good stretch (5-1-1 in their last 7 games) couldn't come at a better time for the Bruins with three of their next four games on the road: they are at Ottawa (29-23-11) on Tuesday (7:30, NESN) before hosting Tampa Bay (41-20-6) on Thursday (7, NESN). Then they have a back-to-back next weekend at Pittsburgh (38-18-9) on Saturday (1, NESN) followed by a game in Washington (36-21-10) the following night (7:30, NBCSN). With the Senators hosting the Flames tonight, Boston is currently seven points ahead of Ottawa which means that a win there could really bury them from the playoff discussion.

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Bruins Run Out of Gas, Fall 4-3 to Devils in Role Reversal from Thursday

The way it played out, Boston choking away a game tonight vs. New Jersey seemed like some sort of cosmic retribution for them stealing two points from San Jose on Thursday. Make no mistake, the Sharks are excellent and the Devils suck but both teams are still in the NHL so on any given night yada yada. The Bruins (7-3-0) should have hung on but the Devils (2-5-4) were able to score two power play goals 23 seconds apart in the third period en route to a gut punch of a 4-3 win at dejected TD Garden.

Two factors: it is October and 2) the way they won with 0.8 seconds left vs. San Jose made this a little easier to take than the normal anal probe. Boston actually came out in the first period like a refreshed team that wasn't playing its third game in four nights (for the first time this season). They pumped three goals behind Martin Brodeur (25 saves) who is just a shell of what he used to be even a few years ago let alone a decade. It's tough to pin this on Tuukka Rask (28 saves) since all four of New Jersey's goals came on the power play including the tying goal which was a 6-on-3.

Power play specialist Torey Krug fluttered a wrist shot past Brodeur 7:52 into the contest, his fourth of the season from Jarome Iginla and David Krejci. The fun times continued as Iginla scored his second in as many games 1:27 later off a Devils skate. Dougie Hamilton and Rask both assisted on that fluky goal. Adam Henrique answered at 11:24 after Rask kicked a rebound right to him. Granted, his defensemen didn't do their job to clear the puck out of the zone. It was all good though (or at least we thought) as Lucic barreled down the left wing and snapped one past Brodeur for his sixth point (3 goals, 3 assists) in his last four games. It was also his team-leading sixth goal of the season from Krejci and Iginla.

Rask is human so you can't expect him to only give up one or two goals every night. The backhander that Damian Brunner snuck by him had to be the softest that the animated Finn has allowed in his nine starts. Not only was it weak but the timing was rough since New Jersey climbed back in at 3-2 with 28 seconds left in the second period.

Boston's meltdown started when Krug was rightfully called for a four-minute penalty (high sticking that drew blood). Before that was halfway through, Patrice Bergeron of all people accidentally flung the puck in the crowd in Boston's own end. Yikes, Zdeno Chara had done that earlier which led to Brunner's goal. New Jersey pulled Brodeur and quickly cashed in. Marek Zidlicky's shot from the point got by Rask who was completely screened by Steve Bernier at 18:52. Before the Bruins had a chance to recover, they were out of position and Rask was fishing the puck out of the net after Andy Greene's one-timer at 19:15. Goodnight everyone and drive home safely!

The B's are nice enough to let us really focus on the Patriots and Red Sox tomorrow then Red Sox on Monday before they return on Wednesday (8, NBCSN) in Pittsburgh (7-3-0). That'll be the first meeting of the Bruins and Penguins since Boston swept them in the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Gee, that'll be an entertaining game. NBCSN must be drooling for their rivalry night, it's a little better than Bruins-Sabres from last week.

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Oh Jacques Lemaire, you old sailor you

For the first time in the 2008-2009 season, the Boston Bruins have lost two games in a row.

The Minnesota Wild (20-16-3) came to the Garden last night and executed their boring, defensive brand of hockey to perfection in a 1-0 shutout of the B's (29-7-4).

Minnesota got all the offense it would need in the second period as Marek Zidlicky scored a power-play goal from Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Krys Kolanos.

Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom made 28 saves in his fifth shutout of the season. His record improved to 19-12-2 and I feel like an idiot for sitting him on my fantasy team but I figured the Bruins would play well after the Sabres loss over the weekend. Not so much.

More than anything, I feel bad for my buddy that had to sit through this awful game. Sure coach Jacques Lemaire has proven that his trapping system can win in the NHL (just ask the Devils) but that's not to say it hasn't set the game back 20 years in the process.

Boston outshot Minnesota 28-24 but it was no matter. Bruins goalie Manny Fernandez had 23 saves in the loss.

The B's will look to get back to the win column as they host the struggling Ottawa Senators tomorrow night.