
FINAL SCORE: Red Wings 3, Bruins 2
FROM JOE HAGGERTY
1. Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson with a gritty goal crashing the front of the net and shoveling home a loose puck after a Jake DeBrusk second effort shot at the net. If 22-year-old JFK continues to go to the dirty areas he’s going to do himself a lot of favors in establishing himself at the NHL level and becoming that long-term third line center for the Bruins. Unfortunately for Forsbacka Karlsson, it looked like he suffered an upper-body injury in the second period that sent him back to the B’s dressing room, but he did return for the third period.
2. Not much rust on Kevan Miller in his first game in almost a month from an injured hand. Miller logged 15 plus minutes in the first two periods and was well on his way to surpassing 20 minutes of ice time while coming back from injury. Not super involved in the physical part of the game yet, but certainly a good re-entry into the lineup. Miller had several shots on net and stepped in front of a few shots, but didn’t play much of a physical role in his first game back. He was also bailed out by Tuukka Rask on one play in the second period where he coughed up a puck that ended up in two good scoring chances for Michael Rasmussen. Other than that Miller was excellent in his return after missing the last 13 games.
3. Rookie D-man Jakub Zboril was sent back to Providence on Wednesday after a short cameo in a couple of games for Boston where he played little more than 10 minutes of ice time in each game. I guess we’ll have to wait to see what the former first-round pick can do at the NHL level given how little rope he was allowed in a difficult time with so many injuries to the B’s back end. But it’s also a good sign that Zboril was sent back to the AHL as it means Kevan Miller is ready to return from the injured list, and it sure appears like Charlie McAvoy might not be too far behind either after he rejoined the team at practice.
4. Rookie defenseman Connor Clifton looked like he collected his first NHL point on Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson’s second-period goal tonight, but the assist is taken off the board after the second period. First NHL point or no first NHL point, the Quinnipiac kid continues to do some good things at the NHL level after zero fanfare getting to this point as an injury replacement. Clifton finished a plus-1 in 20:38 of ice time with four shots on net and a couple of blocked shots, and again looked very, very good for the depleted B’s defenseman corps.
5. Four shots on net, four hits and a goal for Chris Wagner as the Bruins energy players were among their best against the Red Wings on Wednesday night. Wagner was physical, he was hustling and he was able to redirect a Sean Kuraly pass past Jimmy Howard for a short-lived go-ahead goal in the third period. Wagner, Kuraly and Noel Acciari certainly did their job against Detroit in the overtime loss, but they needed more of their skill players to join that group if they were going to win against an Atlantic Division team they would have liked to beat.
Boston Bruins
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BRUINS RECORD: 11-6-4
HIGHLIGHTS:
JFK SCORES A BEAUTY
RED WINGS TIE IT
DETROIT TIES IT AGAIN
RED WINGS GAME-WINNER
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FRIDAY: vs Penguins, 7:30 p.m. (NESN)
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