RECAP: Red Wings start off strong, but fall short in 3-2 loss to Bruins

BOSTON -- Despite a strong start and a two-goal advantage less than five minutes into Saturday's matinee, the Detroit Red Wings ultimately fell short, 3-2, against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.

Nearly three minutes after Andrew Copp opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal at the 1:36 mark of the first period, Alex Chiasson tallied his first goal as a member of the Red Wings on the power play. It marked just the second time in franchise history that Detroit potted a shorthanded and power-play goal in the first five minutes of a game.
"It was great," Moritz Seider said about his club's strong first period. "I think if we start the rest of the season like that, we will give ourselves a really good chance of winning a lot of hockey games."
But in the middle frame, the Bruins scored an even-strength and power-play goal to send the contest into the second intermission tied, 2-2. Boston potted the eventual game-winner with 6:06 left in the third.
"I thought we won the third period," said Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin, who recorded his 248th career NHL assist to tie Syd Howe for 20th place on the franchise's all-time list. "But we just didn't get the goal we needed. They got a goal that just bounced and (Garnet Hathaway) made a nice move to put it in. That's really what it comes down to tonight."
Magnus Hellberg made his 12th start of the season and finished with 35 saves for Detroit (29-27-9; 67 points). Boston improved to 50-9-5 (105 points) overall, becoming the fastest team in NHL history to reach the 50-win milestone in a season. The Bruins needed only 64 games to reach 50 wins, surpassing the previous record of 66 shared by the 1995-96 Red Wings and 2018-19 Lightning.
"You build off the things you did in the first and the third," Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. "Learn from this."
NEXT UP: Detroit will conclude its weekend back-to-back home-and-home set against Boston on Sunday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena. Sunday's matinee also marks Kids Day, presented by Chevrolet.

SCORING SUMMARY

Detroit 1, Boston 0 (1:36, 1st period)
Copp skated into the right face-off circle on a 2-on-1 rush after intercepting Bruins forward David Krejci's pass and scored a shorthanded goal. It marked the fourth-fasted shorthanded goal in franchise history.

Detroit 2, Boston 0 (4:32, 1st period)
Larkin and David Perron completed a quick tic-tac-toe sequence before getting the puck to Chiasson on the doorstep, who scored a power-play goal. In his last two games, Chiasson has three points on one goal and two assists.

Boston 1, Detroit 2 (12:43, 2nd period)
Hampus Lindholm took a shot from the point that found its way through traffic for a goal that got Boston on the scoreboard.
Boston 2, Detroit 2 (14:11, 2nd period)
Patrice Bergeron tipped Jake DeBrusk's feed past Hellberg on the power play to erase the Bruins' two-goal deficit.
Boston 3, Detroit 2 (13:54, 3rd period)
Hathaway located the puck on a rebound and sent it home on a wrister for the eventual game-winner.

QUOTABLE

Lalonde on his biggest takeaway from Saturday's matinee
"The second period burnt us. We had a really good first and I liked our third. It's just the second, probably the penalties. Our four penalties happened in the first 30, 35 minutes. It's just too much on our group and gives their top guys too much momentum. It's unfortunate because we had a really good opportunity today."
Larkin on making the most of scoring chances
"Good teams like that, they're gonna score. We did a good job to really minimize it. They got a bounce there in the third, but we gotta bury our chances and put them away. We didn't do that tonight."
Seider on Saturday's end result
"It really hurts when you put in a lot of effort, but you just don't get the outcome that you really wanted."