When goaltender Tuukka Rask and the defense in front of him play like they did in Tuesday night’s 3-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, putting the Boston Bruins up in the series two games to one, they’re a straight up nightmare for any playoff opponent thrown their way. It’s almost scary.

Recording his first shutout of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs (and the fourth of his playoff career), the 27-year-old Rask kept things simple en route to a perfect 23-for-23 showing. Status quo, really. I mean, this is a goaltender that’s given up two goals in three games this series. One was scored by Pavel Datsyuk and the other went off Luke Glendening’s hand and in.

Through three games, he’s stopped all but two of 82 shots against, posting a .976 save percentage, second to Minnesota’s Darcy Kuemper small sample, perfect 1.000 save percentage.

And dating back to last postseason, Rask has now won 16 of 25 playoff starts since taking over the starting job in 2013, and has posted a .943 save percentage over that stretch. He’s been OK, I guess.

But what you saw in front of Rask on Tuesday night was a defensive shutdown that left a sold out Joe Louis Arena with little to cheer about for 60 unbelievably frustrating minutes. Like they have for much of the series, the B’s kept Detroit’s shots to the outside, and rarely seemed to let the Wings’ biggest offensive threats -- Datsyuk and Gustav Nyquist -- get prime scoring chances.

They’re simply suffocating Detroit’s offense from the middle on out.

Still, the Red Wings’ effort (or lack thereof) seemed to end this one before it even began. In a period where the Bruins struck twice, one off the stick of Dougie Hamilton (who could’ve scored about five goals based on the way he just danced in the Detroit zone) and Jordan Caron, a player that had one goal in 35 games this year, the Red Wings were nowhere to be found. They were run out of their own building, and that’s just inexcusable this time of year. Period.

“I don’t think there’s ever anything wrong with losing when you maximize your group and did everything you could,” Detroit bench boss Mike Babcock said after the Game 3 loss. “That’s why that’s disappointing to me. We’ve been a way better team than that. That’s unacceptable.”.

But at what point do we entertain the notion that the Bruins are channeling their third round selves from a year ago? It was in the Eastern Conference Finals last year when Rask and the B’s infuriated the Pittsburgh Penguins in a four-game sweep. Now, the sweep could seem misleading because most of the games were close, but it rarely seemed as if the Penguins were in control, especially when it came to the performance of their big guns, who were shut down from all angles in the B’s zone.

Maybe it’s not to that degree just yet, especially when you look at the way the Wings have been able to control the second period of all three games, but you wouldn’t be wrong if you picked up on some subtle similarities between that series and this one, at least from a defensive zone standpoint.

All things considered, Game 3 was the perfect road game for the Bruins; Detroit didn’t exploit the matchups like they could have with last change, the Bruins had about 25 odd-man rushes heading Jimmy Howard’s way, and they were able to get away with the same rough stuff they did in Boston.

Some more good news for people that love good news? Defenseman Matt Bartkowski returned to action last night and turned in a solid, 18:34 performance.

Logging a hair over two minutes on the Bruins’ perfect penalty kill, which went 3-for-3 on Tuesday night, including a successful 35-second 5-on-3 kill, Bartkowski didn’t necessarily look like a guy shelved for a week plus. And after Game 2 return to action for Kevan Miller, and with both Adam McQuaid and Dennis Seidenberg skating for the B’s (they’re not going to return anytime soon, though), the Bruins’ defense is about as healthy as it can be right now.

Heading into a crucial Game 4 on Thursday, the Bruins will look to keep the good news comin’ and take a 3-1 series lead.

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