There was fight, but not much finish.

This is the current state of the Bruins, an injury-riddled bunch giving it an honest effort. Sometimes they’ll flail, sometimes they’ll flourish.

Saturday at TD Garden was some of the former. They took a 4-2 loss to the Red Wings despite putting 40 shots on netminder Jimmy Howard, frustrated by a 1-for-6 performance on the power play, irritated enough to let a few fists fly.

Unfair to call it a flop, given the fire on display here. Goals from David Backes and Ryan Donato and more sharp work from Tuukka Rask (23 saves) were not enough for the Bruins, held to three goals or fewer in each of their last nine games.

“I don’t think we had a lot of luck around their net,’’ coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Whether this is now becoming a thing for us, where we can’t finish around the net, or it’s just one of those cycles we’re going through, that can probably be debated both ways.’’

In the first period, the Bruins asked Rask to make too many saves (13 shots against). The power play, which went 0 for 2 in the frame, tried to ignite by having Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak switch wings, Torey Krug and Marchand rotate from point to circle, and double-shifting Pastrnak and Krug. Nothing worked.

“I thought they lacked execution tonight, for whatever reason,’’ Cassidy said. “We’ve leaned on that group a lot this year. They were off.’’

No matter. Boston went ahead 1-0 with 3.8 seconds left in the first on a what-the-heck attempt by Backes.

The veteran forward scored his second goal in 20 games after he found a puck along the side boards and floated an end-of-period backhander on net. Red Wings defenseman Dennis Cholowski, trying to cut it down, sent it over Howard’s shoulder.

Detroit tied it on a similarly fluky goal, at 5:45 of the second. A Mike Green shot from the point tipped off Michael Rasmussen’s stick and Tyler Bertuzzi’s chest and rainbowed over Rask.

Bertuzzi almost made it 2-1 at 10:24 of the second. Bruins defenseman Connor Clifton tangled with Thomas Vanek in front of Rask, who fell on his backside as Bertuzzi chipped it in. The Bruins successfully challenged for goaltender interference.

A run of old-time hockey began with a big hit on David Krejci in the neutral zone.

Krejci paid for putting his head down while trying to win a puck. Detroit winger Luke Witkowski bowled him over, catching him in the chest and jaw. That caused unlikely combatant Joakim Nordstrom to engage Witkowski, who avoided damage in his second career fight. When the two skaters emerged from the penalty boxes early in the third period, both benches rapped their sticks on the boards.

After Krejci got clocked and Nordstrom got scrapping, the Bruins were buzzing.

“If they’re going to hit Krech like that, we’re going to respond,’’ said Marchand, who was in the middle of it.

He ran Bertuzzi, who wanted to go but found no willing dance partner. Colby Cave cruised in and cross-checked Bertuzzi, offering him a more even trade. As Howard skated off on the delayed call on Cave — one Cassidy referred to as “weak . . . he barely touched him’’ — Marchand responded to contact from Howard by slashing the netminder with his stick.

That touched off a five-a-side tango. Amid a yard sale of equipment and a few jabs as the players paired off, Rask saw Howard involved and raced in. Both netminders bared their fists, but officials would not let them throw. The 17,565 at TD Garden made it clear what they wanted.

Rask was among them. “You need to get at least one under your belt in your career,’’ he said. “I know Jimmy pretty well.’’

“It he says yes,’’ Cassidy said of his goalie, “I’m all for it.’’

It took seven minutes to sort out the mess. Marchand was in the box for 21 seconds when Dylan Larkin made it 2-1 with a power-play rebound bid.

Donato responded 5:31 into the third with a power-play goal, his rocket on the rush deflected top shelf by Witkowski. It tied the game at 2. But Frans Nielsen tipped a bouncing puck past Rask at 11:53 of the final frame, cruising into the slot to affect an innocent-looking point shot from Danny DeKeyser.

When Luke Glendening stopped short in front of a changing Matt Grzelcyk to dump the defenseman in the neutral zone, the Bruins, with Rask off, were too busy hunting the tying goal.

They didn’t get it, though Donato had a backhand bid in tight: “One of those close ones you’ll be thinking about it all night when you’re trying to sleep,’’ he said.

With 26.6 left, Gustav Nyquist said good night with an empty-netter.

The Bruins have not scored more than three goals since putting up four Nov. 11 in a win over Vegas. Zdeno Chara was lost to injury the next game, Bergeron the one after. A long stretchwithout those key pieces, but that’s not Cassidy’s focus.

“No,’’ he said. “Watching the video tomorrow morning I will, but tonight no. I just think it’s a bad road to go down to start the what ifs and the woe is me. We’re winning games with this lineup. Tonight, we didn’t, but we’ll bounce back.’’

Follow Matt Porter on Twitter at @mattyports.