Bruins pull away from Red Wings for second consecutive shutout

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Jan 13, 2026

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — Given the streaky nature of these Bruins, you might be forgiven if you didn’t want to fully invest in this team.

But if the B’s can continue to get goaltending like they’ve gotten the last couple of games, they might be worth a watch.

After surviving a six-game losing streak last month, the pendulum is now swinging the other direction. And on Tuesday night, they cooled off one of the hottest teams in the league, shutting out the Detroit Red Wings, 3-0, and riding a dominant third period to the win. Jeremy Swayman (24 saves) notched the B’s second straight clean sheet after Joonas Korpisalo blanked the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.

The B’s have now won four straight and six of their last seven to put themselves back in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

The B’s went into the third clinging to a 1-0 lead, but outshot the Wings 16-2 in the third and pulled away with two more goals. The B’s now have a chance to sweep their five-game homestand with a win over Seattle on Thursday.

The first period was scoreless but entertaining. The Atlantic Division-leading Wings, who’d won four straight and were 7-2-1 in their previous 10, had played on Monday, beating the Hurricanes in overtime. And the B’s jumped on them early, controlling play in the early stages of the first period.

Pavel Zacha had a pair of Grade A chances, one a clean one-timer from low in right circle that Cam Talbot stopped and another time when he walked down the slot but his backhander would not go.

Detroit eventually got its legs under them and pushed back. The Wings are an impressive team when they’re operating in the offensive zone. It’s especially true when they’re on the power play, and they got one when Elias Lindholm was called for a neutral zone tripping.

Swayman came up with a couple of huge saves. The first one came on Andrew Copp at the side of the net and then Patrick Kane sent J.T. Compher in alone, but Swayman snapped his offering out of the air with his glove.

The B’s, who held a 13-10 shot advantage in the first, got their first power-play chance early in the second period. But while they had good zone time, they could not solve Talbot.

Morgan Geekie, who had welcomed a baby boy named Max on Saturday with his wife Emma, was playing with that energy that often comes to players who’ve just had children born. But he had the same buzzard luck that he brought with him into the game on a nine-game goal-less skid. Midway through the period, he had a great chance when he broke in alone on the right wing, cut across the top of the crease and made a nifty move to pull it back to his forehand, but Talbot made a great glove save.

But at 10:59 of the second, the B’s finally broke the ice. Zacha came out of the corner with the puck and wheeled into the high slot before the puck was knocked off his stick. But Mason Lohrei made a heady play to keep the play alive and sweep it back to Zacha. The all-purpose forward then beat Talbot with a high wrist shot from the inside of the right circle to make it 1-0 with his 14th of the year.

They took that slim lead into the third period.

The B’s doubled it at 3:49 of the third. Coach Marco Sturm flipped centers Lindholm and Fraser Minten, putting the rookie up with David Pastrnak and it paid off.

Circling the top of the zone, Pastrnak dropped it for Charlie McAvoy near the blue line and the defenseman took a shot from the high slot that was stopped. He followed up, grabbed his own rebound and dished to Minten for his 11th of the year.

With Talbot pulled for the extra skater with 4:07 left, the B’s won the faceoff and Mark Kastelic chased down the lob-out, sweeping his seventh goal of the year into the empty net.