Athanasiou, Red Wings top Bruins in OT

DETROIT -- Andreas Athanasiou scored his second goal of the game 49 seconds into overtime to give the Detroit Red Wings a 3-2 win against the Boston Bruins at Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday.

Athanasiou tied it 2-2 at 8:59 of the third period on a rebound off a 2-on-1 before beating Tuukka Rask with a turnaround shot from the slot in overtime.
"There was a kind of scrum in front of the net and the puck was bouncing around," said Athanasiou, who was battling Brad Marchand. "I got my stick on it and tried to get it on the net. I don't even know where it went."
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Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Chris Wagner scored, and Rask made 24 saves for Boston (11-6-4), which went 1-1-2 on a four-game road trip.
"We were in every game and we had a chance to win all of them, but we left too many points on the table," Wagner said.
Tyler Bertuzzi scored, and Jimmy Howard made 34 saves for Detroit (10-9-2), which has won nine of its past 11 games.

"Obviously, we're a lot happier now than we were at the start of the year, but we can't be satisfied with being one game over .500," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "We've got to keep finding ways to win games and we have to get better at playing 60 good minutes."
Detroit has come from behind to win in five of its past seven games.
"There's a great feeling in this room right now because we know we are always capable of coming from behind," Howard said.
Forsbacka Karlsson gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 4:08 of the second period. While battling with Bertuzzi and Forsbacka Karlsson for a rebound in the crease, Red Wings forward Luke Glendening knocked the loose puck into the open net.
Bertuzzi tied it 1-1 at 9:48 when he redirected Nick Jensen's point shot past Rask.
Jacob de la Rose nearly gave Detroit the lead at 18:00, but his tip off a pass from Bertuzzi went off the crossbar.
Wagner gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 6:45 of the third period when he tipped in Sean Kuraly's pass at the top of the crease.

Athanasiou's tying goal came after Frans Nielsen intercepted Anders Bjork's pass in the Red Wings zone.
"Bjork's got to shoot that puck and our defensemen can't get caught pinching with a one-goal lead in the third period," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "You can make those plays in the first period, but it is unacceptable to do it in that spot."
Rask got made a glove save on Gustav Nyquist's initial shot, but couldn't stop Athanasiou on the rebound in the crease.
"He picked a corner and I had to stretch for it," Rask said. "You always want to catch those, but it was a tough play."
Howard slid across the crease to stop David Pastrnak from in close 33 seconds into overtime.
"[David] Krejci is a passer, and I knew there was no way he was going to shoot with Pastrnak alone on the back side," Howard said. "I just loaded up the right leg, pushed across and fortunately came up with the save."

They said it

"We had plenty of opportunities, but we had too many times where we tried to make a pretty play or a fancy play instead of making a simple play and putting the puck on the net. That's something our young guys need to learn." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy
"He hasn't been perfect this season, no one is, but the important thing is that his B-games have gotten a lot better. His A-games have always been great, but now he is creating chances and making plays on the nights where he isn't at his best." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on Andreas Athanasiou
"We obviously got off to a slow start (1-7-2), but we were having a lot of bad bounces and a lot of things that didn't go our way. We knew that if we kept playing the right way, we could be a pretty good hockey team, and we're finally proving that." -- Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou

Need to know

Forsbacka Karlsson received stitches after being hit in the face with a puck in the second period, but returned to the game late in the third period. … Boston had been 19-2-1 in its past 22 games against Detroit. ... Howard is 6-1-0 with a .936 save percentage in his past seven starts. … Athanasiou has had multiple points in four of his past six games.

What's next

Bruins: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; SN360, SNE, SNO, TVAS, NESN, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)
Red Wings: At the Washington Capitals on Friday (4 p.m. ET; SN360, SNE, SNO, SNP, NBCSWA, FS-D, NHL.TV)