After winning his first game as Bruins interim coach, Joe Sacco and his team will aim for two straight victories when Boston visits Detroit on Saturday night.
Boston was saddled with a three-game losing streak (0-2-1) when Jim Montgomery was fired on Tuesday. With Sacco in charge behind the bench, the Bruins eked out a 1-0 win over visiting Utah on Thursday.
“[It felt] pretty good, I’m not going to lie to you,” Sacco said. “To get our guys to get a win, too, was even more important. We feel better about ourselves, and I think how we went about the game (Thursday) was like a business-like approach.
“I thought that we had a couple of individuals that really brought the energy to our group (Thursday) to lift the bench at certain moments during the game, and just a good effort all around from our guys.”
Joonas Korpisalo recorded the shutout by making 22 saves. Elias Lindholm’s second-period goal held up during Boston’s fifth power play of the contest.
“I think it’s a good confidence thing,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said. “Knowing that, you know, we can play the right way and it is in here, and we can respond. You still hate the situation that had to arise for us to respond that way. It was a good game, but it’s one game.”
Boston put together two shutout victories at the start of the month, then went 2-3-2 prior to Montgomery’s dismissal. Sacco, who had been the team’s associate coach this season, went 130-134-30 as Colorado’s head coach from 2009-13.
Detroit also ended a three-game slide (0-2-1) in dramatic fashion on Thursday. Lucas Raymond scored with 51.1 seconds remaining to give the Red Wings a 2-1 home win over the New York Islanders.
Dylan Larkin dug the puck out of the boards and Raymond one-timed a shot from the left circle past Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin. It was just his third goal of the season after tallying 31 in 2023-24.
“Everyone wants to score goals, right? I’m no different,” Raymond said. “But as long as we’re winning games everyone’s happy in there. Unfortunately we haven’t been doing that lately so it was a really big night for us. It’s something to build off of. It’s obviously just a start but it’s always nice to get one at home.”
The Red Wings were in danger of getting shut out at home for the second consecutive time until Jonatan Berggren scored with 4:46 left.
“Certainly not ideal to have to score two in the last five minutes to find a win but I felt we got what we deserved,” coach Derek Lalonde said.
Seeing Raymond, who skates on the first line, fire in the game-winner was a bonus. His other two goals this season came in losses.
“It’s different for a goal scorer when it hits the back of the net and that was a big-time shot,” Lalonde said. “I give both those goals, those finishes, a lot of credit because Sorokin looked like the top goalie in the league. He just had that look to him. I thought it would take a ugly one or a good bounce but it didn’t. We had two good finishes.”
Saturday’s matchup continues a stretch in which the Red Wings play five of six on home ice, then head to Boston for a rematch on Dec. 3.
–Field Level Media