RECAP: 'Good team effort' drives visiting Red Wings past Bruins, 5-2

BOSTON -- On Friday afternoon, the Detroit Red Wings went into the home of the league-leading Boston Bruins -- who are amidst another impressive regular-season start -- and handed the defending Presidents’ Trophy winners just their second regulation loss of the 2023-24 campaign.

"It's a big feat," captain Dylan Larkin said of Detroit's 5-2 win over Boston at TD Garden. "It's pretty amazing what these guys have been able to do early in the season again. We played them twice now and I think this is a big one for us. Winning in this building, an emotional game."

Goalie Ville Husso stopped 25 shots in his first start since Nov. 11 for the Red Wings (10-6-3; 23 points), who also defeated the Bruins (14-2-3; 31 points) in a 5-4 decision at Little Caesars Arena on Nov. 4.

"We played well, our defense was really good in front of Huss and then anything Huss had he cleaned up," Larkin added. "It was a good team effort tonight."

J.T. Compher opened the scoring 5:13 into the game on Detroit's first power play of the afternoon. After receiving Lucas Raymond’s cross-ice pass, Shayne Gostisbehere sent a shot towards the net that was redirected by Compher past opposing goaltender Jeremy Swayman for his fourth goal of the season, giving the Red Wings a 1-0 lead.

Alex DeBrincat made it 2-0 at 15:01, forcing a turnover just above Boston’s blue line and skating in on a breakaway for his team-leading 12th goal of the season. With the tally, DeBrincat became the fourth player in Red Wings franchise history with at least a dozen goals prior to his 20th career NHL game for the club.

"This was similar to our last game out," head coach Derek Lalonde said of Detroit's first 20 minutes of action on Friday. "We had a good start and actually got rewarded with some results, leaving the period up 2-0.”

The Bruins scored on the power play just three minutes into the second period, cutting their deficit, 2-1.

Detroit reclaimed its two-goal lead at 13:24 of the middle frame. DeBrincat passed the puck to Daniel Sprong, who skated into the left face-off circle and threaded a cross-slot pass to Robby Fabbri at the opposite circle. Fabbri quickly buried it, netting his fourth goal of the season to make it 3-1.

Boston trimmed its deficit back to one goal at 4:12 of the third period, but Larkin responded with a power-play tally just 54 seconds later to give the Red Wings a 4-2 cushion. Compher and Gostisbehere added assists on Larkin's seventh goal of the season. 

"It was momentum," Lalonde said about Larkin's man-advantage goal. "Obviously a little unfortunate when nothing is there. Put it off the backboard and good things can happen."

David Perron sealed the win with an empty-netter at 18:15 for the 5-2 final.

"Tonight was good," Andrew Copp said. "We didn't give them a lot of 5-on-5, special teams were good and the power play came up huge tonight. I think we know anytime we play these guys it's going to be a huge challenge. Good to see us rise up to that challenge."

Jake Walman was sidelined for Friday’s game due to illness, while Justin Holl skated in his 300th career NHL game.

"We're getting some really good rhythm from our whole group here," Lalonde said.

NEXT UP: Detroit will host the Minnesota Wild for a Sunday matinee at Little Caesars Arena.

QUOTABLE

Lalonde on Husso's performance

"He should have a kid every six weeks. Credit to him in that it's tough in that position to be away from the rink for almost a week, but to still get his reps and be ready for tonight. A really good performance by him."

Lalonde on the Red Wings' play since returning from the 2023 NHL Global Series

"A lot of emotion went into the European trip. Again, it's a results-based league. And we didn't get our results (in Sweden) but man, we played pretty darn good out there. I really give our guys a little bit of credit for not accepting getting results out there and putting a little more focus into their approach."

Larkin on carrying over momentum from Sweden

"Those two games in Sweden were very intense and emotional. We got a point, but they didn't both go our way. We didn't play up to our standards. We came home and got that same intensity, which is really hard to do with travel and all that. I think Alex Lyon started it last game. He played out of his mind and really got the confidence going for our group."

Husso on how he felt in his first start since Nov. 11

"It was kind of nice to come into today, almost two weeks no games, just (feeling) nice and relaxed. Guys did a really good job today too, so made my day easy there."