The Bruins Cooled Off The Stars-One of the Hottest Teams In the NHL-With a 4-3 Win at the Garden

After not looking anything like the best team in the NHL in their past two outings (blowout 9-3 loss at Vancouver then a 5-2 defeat vs. Calgary), the Bruins (40-13-12) put on a very entertaining performance for their home crowd at TD Garden and came away with a 4-3 victory against the Stars (37-21-6) in the process. Dallas entered the contest in second-place in the Central Division with an eight-game road point-streak to boot (6-0-2). They were also 10-2-2 in their past 14 road games so this was a quality two points for the B's who vaulted seven points ahead of Tampa Bay (40-19-5)-who lost their fourth game in a row, falling 5-2 to Chicago (28-28-8)-for first-place in the Atlantic Division.

Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak each put up two points (goal and assist) but the real talking points for the Bruins since they were much more unexpected had to be David Krejci's first fight since the 2010-11 season (the Cup year, that long ago) and Nick Ritchie had two points (goal and assist) himself in his second game as a Bruin. Ondrej Kase's debut for Boston wasn't too notable (minus-1 in 15:16) as he started out on the second line with Krejci and Ritchie before shifting around. Jaroslav Halak (17-6-6) improved to 6-0 in his past six starts with 31 saves. This could have been a less nervy finish as the Black and Gold had to sweat out the final few moments as they couldn't cash in a bunch of empty-net opportunities and the Stars got a weird bounce off Zdeno Chara's skate which cut it to 4-3 Bruins with 2:24 left in regulation. The B's held on though and put to bed any thoughts of an extended losing streak at least for the time being.

The first period was devoid of much action until near the end of the frame as both clubs converted on power play chances. Dallas defenseman John Klingberg's shot deflected off Chara's stick at 17:38 for a 1-0 Dallas lead. Joe Pavelski had the lone assist on Klingberg's fifth goal of the season (that was changed to what would have been Jamie Benn's 300th career goal, only to revert back to Klingberg). Charlie Coyle tied it with a play that would make any professional baseball player proud: Stars goaltender Ben Bishop (24 saves, 21-14-4) made a save on Torey Krug but Coyle hit the puck out of mid-air with his stick once then a second time for the tying tally. Coyle's 16th goal of the season was also assisted by Marchand.

Knotted at one apiece after the first period, Boston took control with a pair of goals 1:17 apart late in the second period. Stars defenseman Andrej Sekera and B's winger Chris Wagner both hit the post earlier in the second. Krejci (18 penalty minutes on the season entering tonight) threw down with another normally mild-mannered guy-Joe Pavelski (24 penalty minutes before this) and for two guys that never drop the gloves, it was an excellent bout. Krejci got the best of Pavelski as evidenced by his bloody knuckles that had to be repaired in the Bruins dressing room. That obviously fired his teammates up as they scored 2:20 after it. Marchand potted his 26th goal of the season at 14:44 on a sweet feed from Charlie McAvoy. Pasta had the other assist as Bishop was left down and out with no chance to stop Brad's top-shelf bullet. Ritchie's shot from distance might have been tipped by someone or something but ultimately it went down as an unassisted goal for him (his 9th of the season and 1st as a Bruin) at 16:01.

Dallas cut it to 3-2 early in the final period as Denis Gurianov tipped in Esa Lindell's shot at 1:18. Jason Dickinson notched the other helper on Gurianov's 19th goal of the season. Boston answered right back as Pastrnak's finished an on-the-tape pass by Ritchie at 3:53 for his NHL-best 46th (!!!) goal of the season. Jeremy Lauzon picked up his first assist of the season as well on what turned out to be Pasta's game-winning goal. Marchand tried to score an empty-netter but it was blocked and other Bruins skated in mud as they tried to end the game. The Stars were undeterred as Miro Heiskanen forced a save by Halak, only to see the puck find a way to get past Halak. Heiskanen's eighth goal of the season was assisted by Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin (remember him, ladies of the greater Boston area?). The Bruins swept the two-game season series vs. the Stars after beating them 2-1 in the season opener on Oct. 3. To give you a clue how long ago that was, Boston's two goal-scorers that night are no longer on the team as Brett Ritchie is in Providence and Danton Heinen was traded to Anaheim. The Bruins are 7-0-2 in their last nine games vs. the Stars, something to keep in mind when they meet this June in the Stanley Cup Final.

After practice tomorrow at Warrior Ice Arena, the Bruins will hit the road for three games in Long Island and Florida. Wagner left tonight's game with an upper-body injury so the team will know more about his status for the road trip after he shows up tomorrow in Brighton. They are at the Islanders (35-20-8) on Saturday afternoon (1, NESN) followed by the Lightning on Tuesday (7:30, NBCSN) and Panthers (33-25-6) on Thursday (7, NESN)-which is always a majority Bruins crowd. New York is the top Wild Card in the Eastern Conference but they have lost their last two games in overtime. The Lightning are playing some of their worst hockey of the season and captain Steven Stamkos is out with an injury while the Panthers are four points behind the Blue Jackets (31-20-14) for the second Wild Card. With all that said, those are three tough opponents and at least two of them will probably make the playoffs this spring so get used to seeing them some more.

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Home From a Productive Trip (3-1-0), the B's Sleepwalk Through a 5-2 Defeat vs. Calgary

When you have the best record in the NHL (39-13-12) and the most points (90) like the Bruins currently do, it is tough to complain about all that much in this unexpectedly smooth campaign. Still, they ended what had been a great road trip with a bizarre beatdown in Vancouver on Saturday (9-3 blowout) night then they came back to TD Garden this evening and never really put up much of a fight as they lost 5-2 to the Flames (the first-place Wild Card team in the West) who they had beaten 4-3 last Friday in Calgary. It was a wasted opportunity for the B's as well since the Lightning (40-18-5) lost (for the 3rd game in a row) 4-3 in regulation to the Maple Leafs (33-23-8). Boston remains five points ahead of Tampa Bay and 16 points in front of Toronto so it's already down to a two team race for the Atlantic Division crown in 2019-20.

Bruins GM Don Sweeney had a pretty quiet trade deadline yesterday as he flipped winger Danton Heinen to Anaheim for former first-round pick and winger Nick Ritchie (Brett's younger brother). This came on the heels of another deal with the Ducks on Friday: washed up right wing David Backes, a prospect (defenseman Axel Andersson) and a first-round pick this summer for right wing Ondrej Kase (who was a scratch tonight as he recovers from an injury). Other Bruins trade targets who didn't ultimately materialize: former BC star Chris Kreider re-signed with the Rangers, Tyler Toffoli was traded last week to the Canucks and poor Kyle Palmieri has to continue to rot away in New Jersey. Coming into tonight, Ritchie had eight goals and 11 assists in 41 games for a terrible Anaheim club while Kase put up seven goals and 16 assists in 49 games. I don't expect either guy to light the world on fire but considering that Heinen is just a guy and Backes has literally nothing left, they have to be at least a slight upgrade for the Bruins heading into the playoffs.

You always hear about how that first game back after a long road trip (in the NHL or NBA) is always a tough one to find your legs in. That seemed to be the case for the Black and Gold who never led and only managed to tie it up once on First Responder's Night (one of the team's best annual events) at the Garden. Jaroslav Halak was honored in a pregame ceremony for appearing in his 500th NHL game earlier this season. Starting goaltender Tuukka Rask (23-7-6) had his season-long 20-game point-streak on home ice snapped as he allowed four goals on 30 shots. The Flames were buzzing early as T.J. Brodie's shot hit the post and then settled between Rask's legs for a face-off. Boston wasn't so lucky on the next bounce as Mikael Backlund's shot went off the end boards but went right to Matthew Tkachuk (Keith's older son) who finished a backhander top-shelf past a sprawling Rask. BC's Noah Hanifin had the secondary assist on Tkachuk's 21st goal of the season at 11:35 of the first period.

Boston tied it with a shorthanded goal by Brad Marchand-his franchise-best 27th of his career-at 10:08 of the second period. Charlie McAvoy had the lone assist as Marchand used his speed and elusiveness to do most of the hard work for his 25th goal of the season. A pair of goals by Sean Monahan only 1:12 apart later in that frame put Calgary in complete control with a 3-1 advantage. He one-timed a pass from former BC star and Hobey Baker winner Johnny Gaudreau at 13:25. His 20th goal of the season was also assisted by Michael Stone. Before the Bruins knew what hit them, Monahan scored a power play goal at 14:37 by perfectly re-directing a pass by Tkachuk with Erik Gustafsson getting the other helper in his Calgary debut.

The Bruins came in with an NHL-best 21-2-9 record at home so you figured that no matter how sloppy or lethargic they were, they would probably push back a bit at some point. Indeed, they cut it to 3-2 at 13:09 of the third period as Chris Wagner scored an extra greasy goal (his specialty). Sean Kuraly and Par Lindholm notched the assists on Wagner's sixth goal of the season. He's scored goals in back-to-back contests for the second time this season (Dec. 5 & Dec. 7) which means something when you are on the fourth line which by the way was Boston's best forward group in this tilt. For a time it seemed like the Flames would at least blow it in regulation and have to go to overtime but then Backlund said no way with the dagger insurance goal at 18:30 (his 13th of the season was unassisted) before adding an empty-netter shortly after that.

This was the start of a very difficult week for the Bruins as they host Tyler Seguin and the Stars (37-20-6)-good enough for second-place in the Central Division-on Thursday (7:30, NBCSN) then they go to Long Island for a Saturday matinee (1, NESN) with the Islanders (35-20-7)-the top Wild Card in the East. No practice tomorrow should help Boston get some rest and refocus as they only have 18 games remaining in the regular season. With any luck, Kase is healthy enough to play against Dallas and he can give them some kind of spark. The Stars won 4-1 at Carolina (35-23-4) tonight and at 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, they are clearly clicking at the moment. Thursday should be an entertaining tilt on national TV with the slightly later start time (ie. more time for pregame suds for Bruins fans in the nearby bars).

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Just Another Day in Boston Sports: Betts Is Traded to the Dodgers & Bruins Blank the Canucks 4-0

When you have lived in the Boston area for so long, I have to admit that at times you forget just how much our local pro teams tend to dominate the national headlines. For example, tonight the Bruins (32-10-12)-the first-place team in the Atlantic Division-took on the Canucks (30-19-5)-the first-place club in the Pacific Division-at TD Garden. By itself, that is a big-time matchup (at least when it comes to the dog days of the NHL regular season) and more than worthy of your attention on what normally would be a quiet Tuesday night. The B's came through with an impressive 4-0 victory but all that anyone could talk about afterwards was the blockbuster Red Sox trade that went down during the Bruins game: Mookie Betts and David Price were flipped to LA for outfielder Alex Verdugo and Boston also got Twins pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol as part of the three-team deal. Wow!

Putting aside the depressing reality of a Betts-less Red Sox club that has been a sheer disaster this entire offseason (a major cheating scandal and manager Alex Cora fired topped off with trading their best player), the Black and Gold should give us plenty more smiles like the ones that they provided this evening. With the win, the B's are only one point behind Washington (36-13-5) for the most in the NHL (77). Boston has returned from its extended break with three wins in a row (at Winnipeg and at Minnesota over the weekend) which coupled with their two points against Vegas (27-21-7) two weeks ago-their last home game-means that they have put together a four-game win streak. With less than three weeks (Feb. 24) until the NHL Trade Deadline, the Bruins have the look of a Cup contender that dare I say (with some more good luck on their side) could find themselves yet again competing in May and June.

Obviously with his third shutout of the season and 48th of his NHL career, you'd assume that Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask (25 saves, 19-4-6) had a phenomenal performance but truthfully, he didn't have to do too much heavy lifting. This sounds like troll-speak but Vancouver's goaltender Jacob Markstrom (38 saves, 20-14-3) was almost more impressive in terms of the high quality stops that he made. Of course, the Bruins still found a way to beat him four times so there is that hard-to-ignore fact. From the obscure stat department: Rask extended his home point streak to 17 games (11-0-6) which tied Gilles Gilbert's club record home point streak from the start of a season (16-0-1 in 1973-74).

There were many promising signs for the B's as four different guys (Charlie Coyle, Brad Marchand, David Krejci and Karson Kuhlman) scored goals for them, only two had to play over 20 minutes (Charlie McAvoy had a team-high 20:42 time on ice and his defensive partner Zdeno Chara was close behind at 20:20) while everybody played at least 10:12 (Chris Wagner) for the home team. This was key since they headed straight from the Garden to their charter flight to Chicago as they visit the Blackhawks (25-21-7) tomorrow night (8, NBCSN) in primetime. It was also nice to see them not rely so much on their power play (1-for-6) or David Pastrnak (game-high 7 shots on goal but 0 points) which are both brilliant but shouldn't have to produce all the time to win. Boston's penalty kill was flawless (3-for-3) and they even almost scored a pair of shorthanded tallies as Wagner and Coyle were both stopped on breakaways when they had a teammate in the penalty box.

The first goal for the Bruins looked like it would surely be overturned at first glance (as Vancouver's head coach Travis Green challenged it) since Sean Kuraly appeared to be offsides when McAvoy stickhandled over the blueline. It turns out that Coyle's goal (coming on a rebound) counted since McAvoy had waited to touch the puck again before Kuraly was properly in position. It was the 10th goal of the season for Coyle, assisted by McAvoy and Anders Bjork at 14:24 of the first period for the 1-0 Bruins lead. McAvoy somehow still doesn't have a goal this season but his initial shot forced a kick save by Markstrom and Coyle was untouched in front of the net and able to make a move and decide where to shoot the puck by him.

Boston outshot Vancouver 13-6 in the first period and led 1-0 before the barrage of rubber continued on Markstrom. The B's outshot the Canucks 17-9 in the second and were able to double their lead at 15:35 thanks to Marchand, Bergeron and McAvoy. It all started with an offensive rush to the net by McAvoy, the puck was knocked away from him but Bergy was there to pass it to Marchand who buried it for his 23rd goal of the season. Markstrom continued to give his team a puncher's chance of stealing a point but it was not to be as Krejci put this one away with a 4-on-4 goal at 14:09 of the third period. His 13th goal of the season was assisted by Sean Kuraly and Brandon Carlo. Krejci found space in the slot and while he whiffed on his first shot attempt, his second was a snipe to the top corner. Kuhlman's goal (which came on the power play in garbage time) was where a fortunate bounce came into play for the B's-not that they needed it at that point-because his deflection was actually kind of terrible but it went off Vancouver's defenseman Troy Stetcher's skate and into the net. Kuhlman's first goal for the Bruins since the Stanley Cup Final in June was assisted by Coyle and Matt Grzelcyk-the BU connection.

Jaroslav Halak (13-6-6) will get the start in Chitown and thankfully, the Blackhawks played tonight as well (a 3-2 loss in OT at Minnesota) and had to travel too so there won't be any additional rest factor on Chicago's side who is four points behind the Golden Knights for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. Could it be another spring without playoff hockey for the Blackhawks? After that, Boston returns home to host the Coyotes (27-21-7) on Saturday afternoon (3, NESN) and then they go to Detroit (12-38-4)-the worst team in the NHL-for a Sunday matinee (12:30, NBC). It's a busy stretch for the Bruins but some very winnable contests all around them ending with a meeting with Montreal (25-23-7) next Wednesday (7:30, NBCSN) at the Garden followed by hosting the same crapbag Red Wings next Saturday (1, NESN).

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