The Bruins are notorious for poor play in the first period of an afternoon game. However, today was a bit of an exception. Despite being down 1-0 after 20 minutes, the Bruins had a lot going for them, and still more that needs work. They outshot the Red Wings 13-6 in the first frame and had a number of legitimate opportunities on net. However, it was Detroit who took charge in scoring.
Detroit's Valtteri Filppula was the first to find the back of the net with a nice give-and-go play with Henrik Zetterberg. Going down the right side, Zetterberg found a crashing Filppula and slid it past Tuukka Rask to give the Red Wings an early 1-0 victory just 12:43 into the first period.
This is the fifth time in the Bruins 10 game winning streak that the B's have given up the first goal in the game.
The Bruins however, had a couple of chances that Jimmy Howard abolished pretty quickly.
8:46 into the first period, the Bruins drew a penalty and took the extra man. Chris Kelly came through the zone and around to the back of the net. After the puck left his stick, Jonathan Ericsson pushed him into the net, drawing an interference call.
With 12 seconds left on the power play, the Bruins set up and a one-timer from Zdeno Chara yielded a rebound right in front of Howard, but Nathan Horton couldn't put it over his glove and the Red Wings killed off the entire penalty.
Rask had five saves in the first, but hasn't been really tested so far and Howard looks very comfortable in net for Detroit, racking up 13 saves in the first.