On the night before Thanksgiving, the Red Wings rout the Bruins

Click the image above to see MiHockey's photo gallery from the Wings' win over the Bruins Wednesday night. (Photo by Tom Turrill/MiHockey)

By Stefan Kubus –

DETROIT – On the eve of Thanksgiving, the Red Wings found plenty to be thankful for Wednesday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Though battling inconsistency on home ice, the Red Wings turned in an electric offensive effort against Boston, posting six goals on goaltender Tuukka Rask in a 6-1 win over the Bruins. Jonas Gustavsson stopped 16 shots to add another win to his impressive 6-0-1 record on the season.

“I thought we skated,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “We had puck luck today, too. Haven’t had a whole bunch of that this year. We had good special teams, got good goaltending, but we skated good.”

Johan Franzen tallied three assists, while Niklas Kronwall, Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar and Henrik Zetterberg each recorded a goal and an assist for Detroit. Joakim Andersson also chipped in with a pair of helpers in the win, as part of a productive line with Tatar and Drew Miller.

But in the first period, it was former Michigan State Spartans forward Justin Abdelkader who potted the game’s opening goal.

Franzen exited the penalty box at the 11:38 mark and took a loose puck down toward the Bruins end for a 2-on-2 rush with Abdelkader. Because the Bruins’ power-play unit remained on the ice, forward Patrice Bergeron was playing defense against the oncoming rush. Franzen easily skated around Bergeron, took a shot that he broke his stick on, and Abdelkader was there to fire in the loose puck.

Tatar found the back of the net for the first time in 10 games early in the second period on a great individual effort. The 22-year-old Slovakian-born forward deked around Boston forward Chris Kelly at center ice before breaking in and scoring on a wrap-around to make it 2-0.

“I just remembered when I got the puck in the middle zone, I made a move and actually toe pick and fell for a second, but I stood up really fast and I guess the defenseman didn’t really expect that,” Tatar said of his goal. “I faked like I was going to go in front of the net, but I went behind and I guess the goalie just didn’t make it over in time.”

Gustav Nyquist had a scoring chance two minutes later, taking a pass at the bottom of the right circle with Rask out of position, but sent the puck over an empty net. Moments later, however, Nyquist fed Zetterberg in the high slot, who ripped a shot over Rask’s glove to extend the lead to 3-0.

Less than two minutes later and on the power-play, Franzen sent a pass through Loui Eriksson’s legs and over to Kronwall, who buried it for his third of the year at 10:01 of the middle frame.

“Our second periods haven’t been our best,” Zetterberg said. “But tonight, we found a way. Special teams were good, we were good on PK and scored some power-play goals.”

Miller and Nyquist added goals in the third period to make it 6-0 before Jarome Iginla scored his fifth of the year to end Gustavsson’s shutout bid.

The line of Tatar, Miller and Joakim Andersson combined for two goals and five points, despite seeing limited ice time.

“I’m happy Drew put it in, as well,” Tatar said of Miller’s first goal since Oct. 26. “I bet it’s going to help him, as well. I think our line played good defensively and offensively, as well.”

Babcock said he really liked what he saw out of Nyquist and Tatar, saying the youngsters provide a whole new dynamic that the line-up needed.

“They’ve made us way better, obviously,” Babcock said. “And Nyquist has come in and given us another real good player, and so we have a better team because he’s here.”

With a win over such a potent Bruins team, Zetterberg said this is the exact type of game the Wings can build confidence and momentum off of.

“We knew we did a lot of good things, but couldn’t really get it together for 60 minutes,” Zetterberg said of the previous home-game losing stretch. “I know I sounded like a broken record there for a couple games, but it’s nice to see that we get rewarded for hard work.”