Detroit — The Red Wings crept a little closer Saturday to a playoff spot.

Four teams are separated by only a point after Detroit’s 2-1 victory over the depleted Boston Bruins at Little Caesars Arena. The Red Wings now trail the New York Rangers, who took over the second wild-card position in the Eastern Conference with a 6-1 win in San Jose late Saturday night.

Marco Kasper and Lucas Raymond (power play) had the Wings’ goals and goaltender Cam Talbot stopped 21 shots including a game-saving glove save on Casey Mittelstadt with 9.3 seconds left.

The Wings and New York Islanders both have 74 points, trailing Montreal and Columbus with 75. The Rangers now have 77 points.

“A lot of effort,” Raymond said of the grinding victory. “Maybe not the prettiest, but it’s about getting it done and we did that with a lot of help from Talbs (Talbot). It’s a good one for us for sure.”

Talbot wasn’t tested much, but he had to turn aside several good Boston offensive chances through two periods, then in the third period, facing only four shots, the save on Mittelstadt was huge.

BOX SCORE: Red Wings 2, Bruins 1

Talbot appeared to poke his glove to the side and snare the Mittelstadt shot from near the side of the net with no clear vision.

“I knew he was there,” Talbot said of Mittelstadt drifting to the side. “I knew when I took my squareness that there’s a guy off to the back door and I saw the scramble in front, and he hadn’t really moved. When the puck squirted that way, I knew it would be a bang-bang play. I just tried to throw everything I could to that side of the net.

“I got my sightline at the last second, and sometimes you have to get lucky.”

Coach Todd McLellan has been searching for a goaltender to take command of the crease, and maybe the veteran Talbot can do so for these final nine games. Petr Mrazek was possibly on his way but was injured Monday in Utah. Alex Lyon played well in relief of Mrazek in Utah, but couldn’t sustain that level of play.

Talbot gave the Wings confidence in the victory over Boston.

“I would go to the crease to start with, the confidence Talbs gave the rest of the group,” McLellan said, when analyzing the victory. “He wasn’t bombarded, but when he had to make a real good save like the one at the end, he made it and that made everyone feel good.”

It was also a much better team defensive game from the Wings, as compared to Thursday’s raggedy and loose loss against Ottawa.

“The players in front of him (Talbot) were a lot more responsible than they were the other night,” McLellan said. “We gave up one semi-breakaway and not a lot of two-on-one’s and three-on-two’s in comparison to Ottawa. Some of that is structural and some of it is work and some of it is reading.

“Our team was much better in that area. It was a team win.”

Morgan Geekie (power play) had the Bruins’ goal.

Kasper puts the Wings ahead 1-0, intercepting a pass near the blue line, skating to the dot and blasting a shot past goaltender Jeremy Swayman (20 saves) for Kasper’s 15th goal.

The Wings went up 2-0 on Raymond’s 26th goal. Moritz Seider set Raymond up for a one-timer just 53 seconds into the second period.

But Boston cut the lead to 2-1 on Geekie’s 26th goal, redirecting a pass from David Pastrnak past Talbot at 2:12.

Possibly the highlight of the evening? Consecutive fights from Alex DeBrincat (against Andrew Peeke) and Austin Watson (against Jakub Lauko) early in the first period — both Wings arguably won on decision — that got the Little Caesars Arena crowd and Wings’ bench fired up.

“It was awesome,” Raymond said of the fights. “I’ve seen Cat chuck them a couple of times now and he has some power. It’s huge, it fires us up and and gets the crowd into it. Then seeing Watty stepping up, it was awesome to see. It just shows how much guys care and how committed they are to this.

“It gave us a boost to start.”

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

@tkulfan