DETROIT — The way both teams were scoring, Pavel Datsyuk couldn’t help reaching this milestone.
Needing one point to make it to 900 in his NHL career, Datsyuk had two goals and an assist Sunday to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 6-5 victory over the Boston Bruins. Henrik Zetterberg and Darren Helm also scored twice each for the Red Wings in a game that felt like a throwback to a more high-scoring era.
“It looked like 1986,” Detroit Coach Jeff Blashill said.
Both teams blew two-goal leads before Danny DeKeyser’s shot from the point deflected past goalie Jonas Gustavsson at 7:37 of the third period. Zetterberg was credited with the goal, and the Red Wings held on to their 6-5 lead the rest of the way.
Boston’s Brad Marchand set a franchise record for fastest goal by scoring 8 seconds into the game, and Zach Trotman, Loui Eriksson, Dennis Seidenberg and Joonas Kemppainen also scored for the Bruins.
Boston’s Tuukka Rask was pulled after allowing five goals on 24 shots. It was the second time in three games he allowed five goals.
“We had to wake ourselves up and we did after the goaltender change,” Bruins Coach Claude Julien said. “A little light came on after that and that’s the reason I did it.”
Marchand opened the scoring with a wrist shot after the Bruins won a faceoff in the Detroit zone. Boston’s previous team record for fastest goal at the beginning of a game was 9 seconds, by Fleming Mackell in 1953.
Marchand’s goal was the fastest in the NHL since Alexandre Burrows scored 6 seconds in for Vancouver on March 16, 2013, against Detroit.
Zetterberg tied the game less than three minutes later, and his goal stood after a review to see if the Red Wings were offside. The Bruins needed only 14 seconds to take the lead again when Trotman’s shot from the blue line beat Petr Mrazek.
Eriksson scored to make it 3-1, but Datsyuk reached the 900-point milestone when he scored during a scramble in front with 5:14 left in the period. The Bruins argued that Detroit’s Justin Abdelkader had played the puck with a high stick, but the power-play goal counted.
Datsyuk credited the teammates he’s played with for enabling him to reach the milestone.
“Lots of helping and supporting, and lots of teaching me, too,” he said. “Lots of giving me advice. I appreciate for all of them.”
Helm tied it early in the second, and Datsyuk scored again with the man advantage. Helm’s second goal made it 5-3 with 8:59 left in the second, and Rask was pulled in favor of Gustavsson.
The Red Wings couldn’t hold the lead. Mrazek, who came into the day leading the league with a .933 save percentage, had a rough game on his 24th birthday, making only 17 saves and taking a careless penalty in the first period for playing the puck outside the trapezoid.
Seidenberg made it 5-4 with a long shot just 22 seconds after Helm had put the Red Wings ahead by two. Then Kemppainen scored a short-handed goal 38 seconds into the third, beating Mrazek from the left circle.
Datsyuk was given an assist on the game-winning goal, bringing his point total to 902.
“I feel pretty fortunate to be on the bench when he gets his 900th. He’s a special, special athlete,” Blashill said. “He’s an absolute winner.”
NOTES: Bruins star Patrice Bergeron missed his second consecutive game because of an undisclosed injury. Bergeron, the team’s leader in points with 21 goals and 26 assists, also sat out Saturday at Minnesota. Before that he had missed only three games since the start of the 2013-14 season. … Boston’s six-game road winning streak came to an end. … Detroit took over second place in the Atlantic Division and moved one point ahead of Boston.
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