BOSTON — The Detroit Red Wings kept pace with their opponent for half the game, then tired legs seemed to catch up to them.

The Wings lost for the first time in five games when they fell, 3-0, to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, Jan. 13, at TD Garden in Boston. With one game remaining in the season series, the Wings are 1-1-1 against their divisional rivals.

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With the Tampa Bay Lightning (61 points) winning in overtime – their 11th consecutive victory – and the Montreal Canadiens (59 points) losing in overtime (not against one another), the Wings (28-16-4) moved into second place in the Atlantic Division with 60 points. They next play Friday against the San Jose Sharks.

Fraser Minten scored at 3:49 of the third period. Charlie McAvoy’s shot was blocked by Andrew Copp, but McAvoy followed the puck and got his stick on it, making a pass down low to Minten for the 2-0 lead. That was part of a dominating performance in the third period by the Bruins, as the Wings didn’t register a shot on net through 13 minutes. Patrick Kane directed a shot on net around that time, during four-on-four play, but Jeremy Swayman made the save.

The Wings pulled Cam Talbot with 4:07 to play for an extra attacker, but Mark Kastelic scored seven seconds later into the empty net to seal the victory. The Bruins outshot the Wings, 16-2, in the third period.

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The only lineup change from the roster that pulled out a 4-3 victory in overtime over the Carolina Hurricanes in Detroit the night before was in goal, where Talbot made his first appearance since New Year’s Day. He was up to the task, turning away one good chance by the Bruins after another in the first period, including a couple of furious rapid-fire shots among 13 total.

Talbot kept it up in the second period, making a particularly clutch save on a streaking Morgan Geekie around eight minutes in.

The game had just passed the midpoint when Pavel Zacha made it 1-0 for the Bruins. Zacha had the puck when he swung into the high slot area, circled back around with J.T. Compher trying to shadow, lost the puck for a second, settled it and launched a rocket of a shot that whipped by Talbot glove-side.

One of the Wings’ better chances against Swayman came when Simon Edvinsson tried to stuff the puck from the side of the crease. Shots after 40 minutes favored the Bruins, 25-22.

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Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. 

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings score in loss to Boston Bruins on road