The Bruins’ Nick Foligno, left, battles the Detroit Red Wings’ Lucas Raymond during the first period Tuesday in Boston. (AP photo)

Filip Zadina also scored for Detroit, which won its third straight and raised the franchise’s all-time point total to 7,001.

“I thought we played very good defensively,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said of his netminder. “We gave up shots, but we didn’t give up a whole bunch of chances. When we did, he did a good job.”

David Pastrnak scored for Boston, and Linus Ullmark stopped 16 shots. The Bruins had won five of their last seven games.

Boston coach Bruce Cassidy missed the contest after being placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol earlier Tuesday.

Detroit Red Wings center Robby Fabbri, right, and Arizona Coyotes center Liam O'Brien skate to the puck during the second period on Saturday in Glendale, Ariz. (AP file photo)

“We made it a little easy on the goaltender, at times, not getting in front of him enough,” Boston’s interim coach Joe Sacco said. “We could have done a better job of providing a screen, taking his sight lines away. Better than what we did, certainly make it a little harder on him.”

With an extra Detroit skater on for a delayed penalty, Staal charged in from the right circle and banged in a rebound from just outside the crease.

“I think it was a win that wasn’t the prettiest,” Detroit’s center Dylan Larkin said. “We defended well. (Nedeljkovic) played great. We didn’t get much offensively.”

Brad Marchand, the Bruins’ leading scorer, served the first of a three-game suspension for slew-footing Calgary’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson in Sunday’s game.

Skating with a 5-on-3 power-play advantage, Taylor Hall sent a cross-ice pass to Pastrnak, who one-timed a shot from the top of the left circle, tying it 6:20 into the third.

Zadina had pushed Detroit ahead at 5:03 of the second when he slipped a backhander into the net past Ullmark’s glove.

Detroit’s Nick Leddy hit the crossbar with a wrist shot from the point with just over a minute left in the second.

“It’s a night where you want to come away with a win,” Hall said. “It’s great to get that amount of shots and control the zone time, but it’s the score at the end of the night that dictates how we’re going to feel.”