Stars Beat Bruins
BOSTON — Tyler Seguin made a young girl wearing a Dallas Stars jersey with his name on it cry when he flipped a puck over the glass to her during warmups Tuesday night.
The talented center then went on to make his old team and its fans shed a tear or two.
Seguin delivered his seventh career hat trick to lead his Stars to a 5-3 victory over the Boston Bruins, who banished him to Dallas in July, 2013 because of off-ice problems and his inability to fit into the team’s system.
“This year (coming back to Boston) felt a little different,” said Seguin, who cleared the 300-point career mark in the game. “It felt like it’s been a long enough time. It’s still special playing here, but it hasn’t felt like it has before.
“Maybe that’s just time going by and maturing, whatever you want to call it.”
Seguin, booed every time he touched the puck or had his name announced even though he left via trade and not free agency, scored two of Dallas’ three power-play goals as the Stars improved to 10-3-0 (5-2-0 on the road) and snapped the Bruins’ four-game winning streak. The Elias Sports Bureau reported he is the first ex-Bruin to score a hat trick against Boston since Mariusz Czerkawski did it for Edmonton in 1996.
Six of Seguin’s hat tricks have come with the Stars, and the one he
scored for Boston was on the road.
Defensemen Jyrki Jokipakka and Alex Goligoski (power play) also scored for Dallas – the first NHL goal for Jokipakka and the first goal of the season for Goligoski. Defenseman John Klingberg (11 points in the last eight games), center Jason Spezza and left winger Jamie Benn had two assists apiece as the Stars rebounded from a 4-1 loss in Toronto on Monday night.
“I’m probably just as happy as he is,” Benn said of his linemate Seguin, who has eight goals on the year and shares the NHL lead with Benn at 20 points. “I just leaned over to him after the game and told him, ‘I’m sure that probably felt good.’ But the bigger thing is that we got two points in a tough building, we responded well as a team, and now we can move on (the final two games of a four-game trip).”
The Stars scored their five goals on the first 17 shots against Tuukka Rask, who did little to help his team and heard it from the crowd on stops late in the third period. He finished with only 14 saves.
The Bruins (6-4-1) fell to 1-4-1 at home, and Rask has allowed 24 goals in the five losses. Boston is 5-0-0 on the road.
Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen made 36 saves in his first start since Oct. 24, raising his season record to 4-1-0 and his career mark against Boston to 8-8.
Versatile and valuable Bruins left winger Chris Kelly sustained a broken left femur (thigh bone) less than two minutes into the game. He will undergo surgery Wednesday and will need 6-to-8 months to recover. Kelly, who will be 35 on Nov. 11, is in the final year of his contract.
“You hope we can somehow compensate for his loss, but I think people are going to realize how important he is to our hockey club, not just on the ice but also in the dressing room and around the team,” coach Claude Julien said. “He’s a guy that is extremely respected by his teammates and on the ice he’s given us everything we’ve asked for. He’s been moved around in all different positions, never says a word, but just thrives on the opportunity to play in those spots that we’ve put him. He was a very versatile player that we really counted on. No doubt he’ll be missed.”
Spezza said he could hear Kelly “howling” on the ice.
Kelly was chasing the puck along the board in front of the benches along with Dallas center Colton Sceviour, who was behind him. Kelly left leg buckled and he remained down on the ice in obvious pain for several minutes before being helped to the bench and then down the runway to the locker room.
