Bruins' blow late lead, fall in Detroit 3-2

Well, you can't win them all, even if you are the Boston Bruins.

And especially if you are playing in Hockeytown.

The last time that we saw the Bruins play at Joe Louis Arena, they were taking a very public 6-1 flogging at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings, a team that still had Henrik Zetterberg but were just starting to discover what life would be like without Pavel Datsyuk...

Detroit's Tomas Jurco pots the equalizer in the third period

...a Red Wings' team whose defense was so stout against the Bruins that only 17 shots reached Jonas Gustavsson while Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask managed to turn away only 22 of 28 Detroit offerings, a performance that prompted Boston coach Claude Julien to quip, " Everything we did tonight was just a disaster".

A turning point in the Bruins' season?

Well, considering that the Bruins have posted an NHL best 36-10-4 record since that night, an argument can be made for such - though the light really didn't come on until an overtime loss at Chicago at the end of a protracted mid-season road trip, Boston posting an absolutely filthy 22-2-4 record since that night in the middle of January...

...and after Wednesday night's 3-2 loss to the Red Wings at The Joe - their first loss in regulation in over a month - the Bruins still stand poised to enter the post-season not just on a very proper roll, but on that proper roll and with home ice advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.

That hasn't happened as yet, but with the Bruins leading the Pittsburgh Penguins by nine points with just six games to play, Boston can take care of that with a win over the Maples Leafs in Toronto on Thursday night coupled with a Penguins loss to Winnipeg.

But, what is one inclined to think about the Bruins possibly matching up with the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Playoffs when they can't win in Detroit?

"It's kind of unbelievable that we lost," Bruins' defenseman Dougie Hamilton lamented. "I don't really know how. We matched them. We had good chances and good zone time and everything, so I don't really know what happened."

What happened, of course, is that more pucks got behind Rask than got behind Red Wings' goalie Jimmy Howard and the Red Wings, turning a 2-1 Bruins' lead midway through the final frame into 3-2 deficit in less than two minutes as Detroit won their third straight game, strengthening their grasp on one of the two Eastern Conference wildcard playoff spots.

Boston's Johnny Boychuck gave the Bruins the a 1-0 lead in the waning moments of the first period with one of his patented rockets from the point, just seconds after a Torey Krug missile was disallowed due to some sort of unexplained interference call on Zdeno Chara who was shielding Howard in the crease...

...and then Detroits' Tomas Tatar tied things up in the second just as a hooking penalty against Patrice Bergeron expired - a laser from the right circle that a shielded Rask never saw - but the pesky Tatar wasn't even close to being done.

After Carl Soderberg gave Boston the lead again just a minute into the third period on an easy-looking power play goal from point blank and the Bruins commenced their customary punishment of the opponent to wear them down, Detroit countered with desperation and speed, throwing shots on goal from every angle - knotting the score at 2-2 when a puck somehow got lodged in Bruins' defenseman Andrej Mezsaros' pants during a scrum in front of Rask...

...the puck falling to the ice and Tater, who was busy being beheaded by Boston's Brad Marchand saw the puck at his feet and kicked it over to Tomas Jurco across the low slot who buried it in the net, followed by the Red Wings' speedy Gustav Nyquist catching the Bruins' in a sloppy change for a breakaway goal and the game winner less than two minutes later.

So what started out looking like the Bruins' were going to break a losing streak in Hockeytown that dates back to the 2007 season suddenly and dramatically evolved into another loss at the hands of the Red Wings, who took the season series from Boston and planted a small seed of doubt in their minds as the regular season winds down.

Can the Bruins win in Detroit if the teams meet in the playoffs? Logic would say "yes", but as the Bruins experienced yet again on Wednesday night, the Red Wings success over Boston at Joe Louis Arena seems to defy logic.