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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Whatever Happened to Tyler Seguin? Oh That's Right, Now He's a Perennial All-Star in Dallas

It didn't take a genius to know back on that fateful July 4th (in 2013) when the Bruins traded Tyler Seguin to the Stars, that he would soon become one of the best offensive players in the NHL. No doubt the change of scenery was a good thing since Seguin will never be the main story in a town dominated by the Cowboys and Mavericks (when they're at least somewhat relevant). The Bruins (24-10-8) now only get to see their former No. 2 overall pick in 2010 once or twice a season but somehow, he seems to usually find a way to make B's fans wish that things could have worked out better here for him. In an afternoon matinee at TD Garden on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Dallas (25-17-3) skated off to the rest of their six-game Eastern Conference road trip with a 3-2 overtime victory thanks to the eye-popping talent of Seguin who (of course!) bagged the highlight-reel game-winning goal.

Seguin's tally was obviously a punch to the collective nuts for the Bruins but before that, there were plenty of reasons to be content with this result from their perspective. Boston rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the second period and earned a point for the 13th game in a row (9-0-4). Remember that they had come into today's tilt as the hottest team in the NHL: 8-0-2 in their past 10 games. With the overtime victory, the Stars jumped over Minnesota (24-17-5) for the first Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. They are a good team with a decent shot to make the playoffs in the always loaded West especially with head coach Ken Hitchcock behind the bench, bringing stability since he's one of the NHL's all-time winningest coaches.

With three more games left this week (Wednesday vs. Montreal, Thursday at Islanders and Saturday in Montreal), this was an Anton Khudobin (9-2-4) joint for the Bruins. He made 29 saves which was fine but Dallas backup goaltender Kari Lehtonen (30 saves) edged him in his first start in exactly a month (a 5-2 loss at New Jersey on Dec. 15). Lehtonen's most recent win was on Dec. 13 (at Islanders). Dallas' usual goaltender Ben Bishop (former University of Maine standout) had made 11 straight starts which seems like a death wish approved by Canadiens head coach Claude Julien but I digress.

Boston is awful in overtime this season (1-6) while Dallas improved to 3-2 in the extra session. The Garden always lacks noise in afternoon starts (sorry kiddos) but still the team is 3-2-1 in them so far in 2017-18. Finally, the B's are 3-2-2 in game 1s (when they have 3 games in 4 days) and they allowed the first goal in consecutive contests for the first time in nearly a month (Dec. 13, 14 & 16).

After a scoreless 1st period, the Stars woke up before the Bruins as they bagged two goals less than five minutes apart. Stephen Johns sniped in a shot at 3:49 for his 5th goal of the season, assisted by Remi Elie and Brett Ritchie. Haha I swear those are all real people and not assumed names made up by the FBI. Former Canadiens bust Alexander Radulov doubled Dallas' lead at 8:15 after Jamie Benn shot the puck via the face-off then the burly Russian was there to pop in the rebound with a backhander for his 17th goal of the season.

Boston's power play was 0 for 4 on the day so they were no help whatsoever. Zdeno Chara got his team back into it though with a patented blast at 16:28 of the 2nd period, cutting it to 2-1 Stars. Charlie McAvoy & Riley Nash assisted on the Captain's fourth goal of the season. Happily this time around, he didn't send anyone to the hospital when they were hit by one of his wayward shot attempts.

Dallas was 20-1-1 when leading after two this season while Boston was 1-9-2 when trailing after two so the home team obviously had their work cut out for them. Ryan Spooner of all people tied it up at 11:21 when his shot in traffic deflected in off a Stars defenseman's skate. Spooner's fifth goal of the season was assisted by David Krejci and Matt Grzelcyk. I thought that the puck had gone off of Jake DeBrusk's body but the ruling never changed, sorry rookie.

Seguin's goal was pretty brilliant as Dallas had an extra skater on the ice during a delayed penalty call. He skated around multiple Bruins who all futilely dropped to the ice to block his shot before he snuck it between Khudobin's stacked pads. His team-leading 22nd goal of the season was assisted by John Klingberg (who paces the league with 35 assists) and his buddy Benn.

Boston beat Montreal (18-20-5) 4-3 in a thrilling shootout that probably few but the true Bruins hardcores actually saw on Saturday night since it was on at the same exact time as the Patriots' blowout of the Titans. With two more games against the Habs this week, the Black and Gold have a real opportunity to bury their biggest rival for good well before the spring is even here. With the back-to-backs, I'm confident that Tuukka Rask will see Montreal again before Khudobin starts against the Isles (22-18-4). After that who knows if Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy would want Rask to play the same club three times in eight days? That's clearly above my pay grade, haha I'm just a lowly blogger that's lucky to be out of my mother's basement.

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