BOSTON — The Boston Bruins know they have to start winning at home if they want to avoid a second straight season out of the playoffs.
And winning at home starts with goaltender Tuukka Rask, who has been wildly inconsistent through the early part of the season — especially at TD Garden.
Rask was good Saturday night, stopping 22 shots in a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings — Boston’s second home win.
“He’s had some good games,” coach Claude Julien said after the game. “I think right now we keep looking back at some average games, but he’ll find his game.
“To me, I’m going to be backing him and supporting him all year long because I know what kind of goaltender he is. When things go bad, that’s when you support your goaltender. That’s when you show trust in him, and we’ve shown trust in him because we know he’s going to help us win games like he did tonight.”
The Bruins, winning in the second contest of a five-game homestand, are 2-5-1 at home — with the other win a 6-0 shellacking of the Arizona Coyotes. The Red Wings are far from Stanley Cup contenders either, but this was a much better game by the Bruins.
Rask has allowed 27 goals in the six home losses — hardly all his fault but he did little to bail his team out in those games.
After centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, and defenseman Torey Krug scored second-period goals, Rask lost his shutout bid on a power play goal by left winger Justin Abdelkader with 13:23 left.
Rask (5-6-1), who also had help from a crossbar and a post, came up big for the second time in the third period on center Riley Sheahan on a late power play. He also stopped a first-period 2-on-1.
The Bruins were better from the start in their second win in three games after a three-game losing streak.
And the effort makes the rest of the homestand look not quite as scary.
“We have three more games at home before we go on the road,” said defenseman Kevan Miller. “I think it’s important that we build off this for sure and roll into the next game (against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday).”
Bergeron scored his sixth goal of the season, Krejci his eighth and Krug his first — Krug with 10 assists on the season before finishing a 2-on-1 off a nifty pass from left winger Brad Marchand to cap the three-goal second period.
Abdelkader, who signed a seven-year contract extension earlier in the week, scored his first goal in 15 games for the Red Wings (8-8-1), who got 28 saves from Petr Mrazek (5-4-0).
“I think tonight it was tough from the beginning but I think we found a way to kind of stay in the game for the first (period),” said Detroit left winger Henrik Zetterberg, who had the stick chopped out of his hands by Marchand prior to the Bruins creating the third goal. “They got the goals, we didn’t, and we’ve just got to somehow create a little bit more chances five on five.”
The Bruins, who beat the Red Wings for the fifth straight time, held a 10-1 advantage in shots through the game’s first 14 minutes — but the Detroit total didn’t include center Dylan Larkin hitting the crossbar with a shot.
Late in the period, Zetterberg and Abdelkader broke in 2-on-1 and Rask made the save on Abdelkader to keep the game scoreless.
Despite the win, the Bruins saw their streak of eight straight games with a power-play goal come to an end.