BOSTON – A number of young Bruins players got their chances to audition in big spots as the preseason begins drawing to a close, and they didn’t do much with them truth be told.
The Bruins placed youngsters like Austin Czarnik, Frank Vatrano and Linus Arnesson in positions to make an impact on play, and instead Boston dropped a 3-1 preseason game to the Red Wings at TD Garden. The defeat marks the first loss of the preseason for the B’s in five games, three of which they’d won in overtime. The offense really never got untracked for the Black and Gold, and things just got progressively worse after a slow, eventless first period for both hockey clubs.
Drew Miller opened the scoring for Detroit in the second amid some running around in the B’s defensive zone, and fired an off-foot wrist shot from the right circle that dinged right under the crossbar. The Red Wings made it 2-0 when Arnesson took a tough angle/gap on a speeding Tomas Jurco, and instead watched the Wings forward skate by him, take a slashing penalty from a trailing Arnesson and then beat Rask high with a deadly shot.
A long shot from Andreas Athanasiou with Torey Krug and Jurco battling in front eluded Rask as well, and a last minute PP goal from Loui Eriksson off a Colin Miller blast made it a 3-1 score to close out the proceedings.