Stars Lose To Bruins

By Stephen Hunt, The Sports Xchange

DALLAS — The Boston Bruins wanted to finish their four-game road trip with another victory, and thanks to three-point performances from both Patrice Bergeron, who had two goals and an assist, and Brad Marchand (goal, two assists), the Bruins recorded a 6-3 win over the Dallas Stars on Sunday afternoon at American Airlines Center.
David Krejci, Frank Vatrano and Ryan Spooner also scored for Boston (32-24-6), which received three assists from Torey Krug and two from David Pastrnak to finish its four-game road trip with a 3-1-0 mark. Tuukka Rask made 33 saves as the Bruins improved to 17-11-6 on the road.
“Yeah, I think we showed a lot of character during that road trip,” Bergeron said. “It’s not an easy trip. We’re playing some big, heavy teams and a fast team with a lot of skills today, so it wasn’t easy by any means. I thought we battled through it.”
Jiri Hudler, John Klingberg and Tyler Seguin each scored and set up a goal for Dallas (24-28-10), which fell to 7-11-4 against the Eastern Conference.
“I thought we got off to a slow start, and really came on in the second period,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “We’d really taken the momentum away from them and were dominating that period, but our defense struggled. Big mistakes have hurt us. We missed some sticks, our defense didn’t tie up a couple guys. I thought that was probably the biggest difference in the game.”
Marchand gave Boston an early lead with his 27th goal of the season just 5:56 into the game, one-timing a Bergeron pass into an open net from the left circle as Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen (22 saves) was slow to adjust.
Krejci made it 2-0 with his 16th of the season off a deflection 55 seconds after Marchand’s tally. Krug took the initial shot from near the Dallas blue line, but Krejci redirected the puck with his stick.
Dallas stormed back with two unanswered goals to forge a tie midway through the second. Klingberg put the Stars on the board with his 10th of the season 4:40 into the middle frame, beating Rask far post with a wrister from the left point.
The Stars pulled level 8:11 before the second intermission when Hudler one-timed a Jamie Benn pass from the left circle for his third of the season with Dallas on the power play.
Boston regained its lead 22 seconds later when Vatrano scored his 10th of the season off a deflection. Bergeron then got his stick in front of a shot by Zdeno Chara 40 seconds later with 4:39 remaining in the second for his 15th of the season.
“Yeah, that’s something that this team’s done well for a little while now,” Krug said of Boston’s response after Dallas tied the game in the second. “They had a lot of speed in that first 10 minutes of the second period. We were able to limit that in the second (part of the period) and take over, and I think our guys did a good job responding.”
The Bruins led 4-2 after 40 minutes.
Bergeron added a second goal 7:48 into the third period, scoring from the slot off a Marchand pass.
“Well, when your best players are your best players, you’re a good hockey club,” Bruins interim coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We’re no different than any other team out there. He (Bergeron) has really found his game and hopefully he stays healthy for us.”
Seguin made it 5-3 with his 22nd of the season off a rebound with seven minutes remaining. Spooner then scored his 10th of the season with 5:37 remaining with Boston on the power play.