The Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics were back in action Friday night. The Bruins were in New York to finish off a two game set against the Rangers, while the Celtics hosted the Detroit Pistons.
At Madison Square Garden, the Bruins got a goal from Nick Ritchie and 21 saves from Jaroslav Halak for a 1-0 win over the Rangers.
Boston (10-1-2) carried the play for the most part the entire night, but the game remained scoreless until almost halfway through the second period. Ritchie came down the right wing and fired a shot off the side of the goal, and then followed that chance and knocked it over the goal line at 9:27 to provide the game winner. David Krejci and Jeremy Lauzon assisted on the goal. The teams combined to go 0-10 on the powerplay. Igor Shesterkin made 29 saves in net in the loss for New York, as they fall to 4-6-3. Brad Marchand has his nine game point streak ended, but the Bruins extend to 10 games with at least a point (9-0-1). They will stay in New York and face the Islanders Saturday night.
In Boston at TD Garden, rookie Saddiq Bey had 30 points to lead the Detroit Pistons to their second win in three games over the Celtics this season with a 108-102 win.
Both teams held first half leads, Boston by 10 early and Detroit by 11 in the second quarter. The Pistons led 54-52 at the half. The hosts took their final lead 61-60 on a Daniel Theis put back layup with 8:47 left in the third quarter, before the Pistons took over again going up by as many as 13. The Celts (13-12) got within 95-93 with 2:10 left to play, but three-pointers by both Josh Jackson and Bey down the stretch ended up being the difference. Jayson Tatum had a game high 33 points, with 11 rebounds and seven assists in the loss. Jaylen Brown added 27 points and six rebounds. Bey shot 10-12 from the floor and 7-7 from the three-point arc and also had 12 rebounds in the Detroit win. Delon Wright also had 22 points, as the Pistons record goes to 7-19. Boston is at Washington Sunday afternoon.
