Missed chances turned tables
This was a tough one to let get away.
With a 1-0 lead, earned the hard way with a ton of forechecking, and a nifty give-and-go score collected by Chuck Kobasew, the Bruins got to the second period full of possibilities against the NHL's top team, the Detroit Red Wings.
Their chances improved when first Andreas Lilja took a holding penalty, then Nicklas Lidstrom was called for hooking 13 seconds later.
But the Bruins could get nothing in the net on the five-on-three power play, though they set up quickly and challenged Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood with a handful of dangerous shots. Marc Savard fired a scorcher from the right boards that gave up a juicy rebound in the slot, but David Krejci popped it up. Zdeno Chara got off a sizzling point shot, but that was blocked.
"We were bearing down on them on the net," said Savard, whose nine-game point streak ended. "We had chances. We had good looks, but whether it was missing the net or blocked shots. They're a good penalty-killing team.
"We should have scored, for sure."
Instead, Henrik Zetterberg evened the score at 15:04, firing a zinger inside the right post, and the Red Wings went on to a 3-1 victory.
"At least for two-thirds of the game, we did pretty well against them," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. "There were little lapses here and there. One of the turning points, obviously, was the five-on-three; we capitalize on that and it's a two-goal lead. I guess we've got to get a better killer instinct in those situations and make those situations count. It was the same thing in Ottawa [a 4-1 Bruins victory Thursday]. It could have been 4-0 but by not scoring five on three, you let teams off the hook and certainly give them momentum."
The Bruins came into the game ranked fourth in the league on the power play (19.8 percent); the Red Wings were third (21.2 percent).
Detroit was 1 for 4, Boston was 0 for 4.
"The power play was the difference tonight," said Savard. "If we had the two-goal lead, we're in the driver's seat. One goal was not enough, obviously."
"Any time you get a five on three, you have to put it away," said Kobasew. "It could have been a different game."
The Bruins' forechecking, so tenacious in the first two periods, sagged a little in the third and, inevitably, the Red Wings jumped on it with scores from Pavel Datsyuk and Brian Rafalski (power play).
"They have players with some of the best skill in the league," said Aaron Ward. "In the second-period power plays, we had some chances. We just couldn't get that second [goal].
"We had some great chances; the whole team took chances when it was there."
As for the result, Ward was clearly frustrated this one got away.
"Pleased, yeah," he said of the team's effort. "Happy? No. But pleased, there were some positives. It's tough to come out of the game with a loss." 