The first matchup between the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings required a shootout to determine the winner. They’ll match up once again, this time in Detroit, on Tuesday night.
The host Bruins pulled out a 3-2 victory on Saturday thanks to the goaltending of Jeremy Swayman. The Red Wings went 0-for-3 in the shootout.
“I knew that it was going to be a big momentum win for us, so staying with that one-shot-at-a-time mentality, just focusing on that breakaway at hand,” Swayman said. “Just excited to be part of it. I couldn’t be happier to be a Bruin, couldn’t be happier to be part of this team, playing in this league.”
Swayman totaled 24 saves while improving his season record to 11-6-0. He has a .915 save percentage and didn’t give up more than three goals in any of his 10 November starts.
“It’s huge. You guys feel it, the fans, everyone, upstairs, we feel it. And most importantly, our players feel it,” head coach Marco Sturm said of Swayman’s impact. “It’s such a good feeling when you have that. All year long, since day one I met him, he’s been rock solid off the ice and on the ice.”
Morgan Geekie continued to carry Boston’s offense on Saturday by scoring both of its regulation goals. Geekie is tied with Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead with 20 goals entering Monday’s action.
“Just try to be in the right spots for those guys to see me, and hopefully, good things will happen,” Geekie said. “Lately, they’ve been finding me.”
Lately, things haven’t gone well for the Red Wings. After a brief stay atop the Atlantic Division, they have lost four straight and five of their last six.
They drew some positives out of their performance in Boston.
“We’re in a little bit of a slump but I thought it was a great effort (Saturday),” defenseman Moritz Seider said. “We really stayed in the fight all night, always had an answer ready.”
Seider literally got in the fight, dropping the gloves against Mark Kastelic of the Bruins. Kastelic was the clear winner in that battle but Seider felt like he was taking one for the team.
“Very tough guy but we needed a little bit of a spark,” Seider said. “We get pushed around sometimes a little bit and some days you need to answer. It doesn’t matter, the outcome. You just have to show face and be ready.”
Detroit had given up six goals in each of its previous two games, and captain Dylan Larkin felt the club showed more grit in the shootout defeat.
‘”We battled and stood up for each other, stood up for ourselves,” Larkin said. “It was a good battle game, and I think a good game for us to maybe come together and show ourselves that we can play in different ways. And when we’re not feeling well offensively, we can still tighten down and play good defensively. … I think for some of our younger players, we can protect ourselves a little better and interfere a little more with guys running around.”
Following Tuesday’s game, the Red Wings will embark on a six-game road trip while the Bruins will play two at home.
–Field Level Media
