Recap: Strong team-wide performance leads Bruins over Stars, 4-3

The Bruins had multi-point nights from several players to help propel a 4-3 victory over the Stars at the Garden tonight.

Power-play goals were the theme of the first period, as both teams capitalized on the man-advantage.

The Stars took the lead in the first period with a power-play goal from Jamie Benn at 17:38 in the first period. Joe Pavelski won the face-off back to John Klingberg who threw a wrist shot towards the net where Benn tipped the shot in past the glove of Jaroslav Halak, to make the score, 1-0 for Dallas.

The Bruins bounced back with their own power-play goal to close out the period with 15.8 seconds left in the period. Torey Krug blasted the puck from the right point, where the rebound hit Charlie Coyle’s stick and he batted the puck in on Bishop’s glove side, to tie the game at 1-1.

Noteworthy for the first – Ondrej Kase saw time on the second power-play unit.

It seemed to take the Bruins a little while to gain momentum in the first period. There were missed connections like Coyle missing a feed from Marchand on the doorstep and missed passes that led to losing offensive zone pressure.

But oh baby was the second period better!

The Bruins put early pressure on Bishop, especially from Chris Wagner and Par Lindholm, whose bad angled shot trickled just over the goal line to hit the post.

The energy ramped up just over midway through the period when David Krejci and Pavelski dropped the gloves. Krejci threw some mean right hooks at Pavelski and both earned a fighting major.

Instead of taking a bad angled shot, Charlie McAvoy found Brad Marchand at the top of the paint where he had a wide-opened net and easily put it past Bishop at 14:44 of the second period, for a 2-1 lead.

Nick Ritchie got his first goal as a Bruin and helped cushion the lead. Zdeno Chara found Ritchie in the high slot where his wrist shot hit Tyler Seguin and redirected the puck to bounce over Bishop’s stick at 16:01 in the second period, to make the score, 3-1. See even though he hasn’t donned the black and gold in a while, Seguin can STILL help the Bs.

The Stars made it a one-goal game at 1:18 in the third period. Esa Lindell threw the puck to the front of the net where in the slot Denis Gurianov tipped in a shot over Halak’s glove, to make the score, 3-2.

David Pastrnak does what David Pastrnak does best and netted his 46th tally of the season. After crossing into the offensive zone, he found Ritchie skating with him who in turn fed him the puck as he crashed the net and tapped in the pass for an easy goal at 3:53 in the third period, to make the score, 4-2.

The Stars pulled Bishop twice in the last three minutes of the third period, which led to them coming within one at 17:36 of the third period with a goal from Miro Heiskanen. Benn found Heiskanen on the top of the paint where Halak made a kick-save on the play, but a bad bounce off Chara put the puck in the net, to make the score, 4-3.

A couple missed empty nets later and the Bruins ran out the clock to defeat the Stars for a final of 4-3.

Noteworthy

• Ritchie, Marchand and Pastrnak each had a goal and assist tonight
• Marchand extended his points streak to eight games, with three goals and nine assists
• Lauzon recorded his first point in 11 games