BOSTON _ Once again, the Detroit Red Wings found themselves trailing after a lopsided first period against the Boston Bruins.
They extended their points streak to six games Tuesday at TD Garden but had to settle for a 4-3 loss in overtime after yet another bad start.
Goals from Andreas Athanasiou, Mike Green and Tomas Tatar gave the Wings a 3-2 lead going into the third period, even as the Bruins used Jared Coreau for target practice. Brad Marchand used his second goal of the night to make it 3-3 at 8:20, digging away at the puck down low. The goal was reviewed for goalie interference, but there was none.
Coreau had made a season high 44 saves by end of regulation. He got beat by David Pastrnak with 46.9 seconds left on a one-timer as the Wings made it hard on themselves by playing catch-up hockey.
Last week in Detroit, the Wings twice rallied from three-goal deficits in the first period to win in a shoot-out.
This night, the start wasn't much better: A Danny DeKeyser turnover seconds into the game enabled Riley Nash to tip the puck at Coreau, who made the save. Before a minute had passed, Niklas Kronwall had taken a penalty to leave the Wings short-handed. Then a bad shift by Riley Sheahan's line ended with Kevan Miller picking the puck off the boards and firing a shot behind Coreau. Shots after 5 minutes were 8-0 to the Bruins.
The Wings kept failing to gain the offensive zone and when they did chip in the puck, the Bruins promptly cleared it. After 10 minutes, the Wings still hadn't gotten a shot on Tuukka Rask.
When they did, they made it count. Green sprung Athanasiou on a breakaway and Athanasiou tore off, deked to his forehand and made it 1-1 at 10:59. Rask's first save came with 6:37 to play in the first period, when he caught Green's shot from the blue line off a faceoff.
Jonathan Ericsson's decision to use his broken stick to stop a breakaway led to a second penalty, one Marchand used to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead when he tapped in a rebound from the right side of the net. That helped shots at the end of the first period reach a staggering 21-7 disparity.
A power play materialized early in the second period but despite nearly nonstop possession the Wings couldn't even register a shot on net. Instead Coreau had to keep being the sharper goalie, as a Sheahan turnover nearly led to another goal. A fortunate bounce made it 2-2 at 6:25 when Green's shot from the top of the right circle redirected in off Miller's skate.
Tatar fired a knuckle ball of a shot that trickled by Rask at 10:51 for a 3-2 lead. Luke Glendening hit a goalpost before the second period, and shots stood at 33-16 at the end of the second period.
