The Boston Bruins scored on their first shot Thursday night but Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard shut the door the rest of the way and the Red Wings rallied for a 2-1 victory in their season opener.
Justin Abdelkader and Gustav Nyquist scored second period goals to provide Detroit’s offense.
Patrice Bergeron opened the game’s scoring with 7:59 remaining in the first period, capitalizing on a turnover by Jonathan Ericsson in the Detroit zone. Bergeron blocked Ericsson’s outlet attempt at the blue line, then cut to the top of the right faceoff circle and snapped a shot past Howard.
At 3:52 of the second period, a goal eventually credited to Justin Abdelkader got the Red Wings on the board. Danny DeKeyser’s shot from the point careened through traffic, first being deflected by Johan Franzen and then bouncing off Abdelkader before getting past Boston netminder Tuukka Rask to tie things up.
With 5:14 left in the period, Gustav Nyquist was left all alone in close to take a pass from Darren Helm and whip a shot past Rask.
Howard made sure the one goal lead was enough, stopping the final 16 shots he faced.
Rask finished the night with 22 saves on 24 shots.
Nyquist’s goal was the only power play tally of the night. Each team had four tries with the man-advantage.
The Red Wings will be back in action on Saturday when they host the Anaheim Ducks.
Detroit forward Andrej Nestrasil made his NHL debut… Forwards Daniel Cleary and Stephen Weiss and defenseman Brian Lashoff were healthy scratches for the Red Wings… Detroit was without forward Pavel Datsyuk due to injury.