Bruins play complete game in win over Detroit

BOSTON -- After scoring four times in Boston's playoff run to the Stanley Cup finals, Torey Krug picked up where he left off in the Bruins second game of the season.

Krug's scored 9:11 into the first period Saturday against Detroit when he fired a slap shot through a screen and gave Boston a 1-0 lead. Krug added an assist as he and the rest of Boston's defensive corps made it an easy night for goalie Tuukka Rask in a 4-1 win over the Red Wings.

"I thought we played a great game right from the start," Rask said. "We realized the fact that was their third game in four nights. We wanted to keep pressure on their D and keep the puck in their end and I think we managed to do that the whole 60 minutes."

Rask faced only five shots in the first period and finished with 25 saves as the Bruins outshot the Red Wings 37-26.

Brad Marchand, Jordan Caron and Zdeno Chara scored their first goals of the season for the Bruins, who went 2-for-4 on the power play.

The Red Wings, who rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 win in overtime at Carolina the night before, started slowly and never recovered after Marchand and Caron scored in the second period to put Boston up 3-1.

"We played such a great game as a team that I didn't have to do a lot of backdoor plays or anything like that," Rask said. "Just one shot and try and take care of the rebound. By then guys took care of it. I thought it was a really good game for a second game of the season."

Henrik Zetterberg scored Detroit's only goal and Jimmy Howard had a busy night for the Red Wings, stopping 33 of the 37 shots he faced.

"They won in every statistic tonight," Howard said. "Every battle. I'm not going to make that excuse that we were tired or anything like that because I kind of think it's pathetic. We need a better effort out of all of us."

Detroit was outshot 14-5 in the first period and lost for the first time this season. The Red Wings failed to score on two power plays, making them 0-for-5 in their first three games of the season.

"I think in the other two games we at least created a lot of chances but the puck hasn't gone in. Today wasn't good," said Zetterberg, who put in a rebound to tie it at 1 with 3:11 left in the first period. "We had a lot of turnovers and giveaways today. They're fast in their transition. When you play a good team like this you've got to have good structure yourself and we didn't have that."

Krug, who scored in the playoffs but never in a regular-season game, gave Boston a 1-0 lead with 10:49 left in the first period when he fired a slap shot from just inside the blue line and beat Howard to put the Bruins up 1-0. Milan Lucic and David Krejci assisted and Chara also helped with a sizable screen in front of Howard.

Chara added a power-play goal with 7:43 left in the third period for his first goal of the season on assists from Lucic and Krug.

"It's not easy when there's somebody that's 6-foot-9 standing in front of you," Howard said.

Marchand scored just 36 seconds into the second period on a wrist shot inside the far post and Caron poked in a backhand pass from Reilly Smith in the slot to put Boston up 3-1 with 12:06 left in the second period.

NOTES: Rask and Howard tied for the NHL lead last season with five shutouts each. ... With Detroit's transfer to the Eastern Conference, these two Original Six franchises are in the same division for the first time since both were in the East Division in 1972-73. ... Boston fans erupted into a cheer when the video board above the ice showed David Ortiz's home run that gave the Red Sox a 7-4 lead against Tampa Bay in the eighth inning of the American League Division Series.