Stars Dominate, Defeating The Bruins 5-2

 

DOWN IN FRONT! pic.twitter.com/pbbgUiuzIT

— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) October 25, 2024

   In Boston at TD Garden on Thursday, October 24th, the Stars defeated the Bruins 5-2 for their sixth victory of the season after losing 4-2 against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. Unfortunately, this is the Bruins' third straight loss after defeating the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Wednesday, October 16th. David Pastrnak and Justin Brazeau scored both goals for Boston, and Matt Duchene, Tyler Seguin, Roope Hintz, Jason Robertson, and Logan Stankoven all scored for Dallas. Mason Marchment picked up two assists, and Matthew Poitras recorded an assist on Pastrnak's goal. The Bruins host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, who also took a tough loss on Thursday (5-1 against the St. Louis Blues)... The Stars head home on Saturday to take on the Chicago Blackhawks, who have lost two games straight since a 4-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks on October 17th.

Stars Lineup:

Robertson - Hintz - Stankoven

Benn - Johnston - Dadonov

Marchment - Duchene - Seguin

Back - Steel - Blackwell

Heiskanen -  Dumba

Harley - Lyubushkin

Lindell - Lundkvist

DeSmith

Oettinger

Bruins Lineup:

Marchand - Lindholm - Pastrnak

Frederic - Coyle - Koepke

Geekie - Zacha - Poitras

Beecher - Kastelic - Brazeau

Lindholm - McAvoy

Zadorov - Carlo

Wotherspoon - Peeke

Swayman

Korpisalo

   David Pastrnak opened the scoring, giving Boston a 1-0 lead at 8:03 of the first period during a 4-on-4 play. After intercepting Mathew Dumba's pass behind the net, Matthew Poitras sent the puck to Pastrnak, who put in a one-timer past Casey DeSmith in the slot. With 3:40 remaining on the clock, Matt Duchene tied it to 1-1 when he lifted the puck past Jeremy Swayman off a cross-ice pass from Tyler Seguin.

   Only 31 seconds into the middle frame, Jason Robertson struck on the power play to put Dallas in a 2-1 lead, their first lead of the night. He finished a behind-the-net feed from Jamie Benn after a face-off win, Miro Heiskanen sent the puck to Benn, who then fed Robertson. Logan Stankoven gave the Stars a 3-1 lead at 15:04 with another goal on the power play. Unimpeded, Matt Duchene skated in from the left side, finding Stankoven in front, who scored his first of the season. Giving Dallas a 4-1 lead with another power-play goal - Tyler Seguin fired a wrister when he had been left open with plenty of space on the right side to easily beat Jeremy Swayman after an incredible pass from Mason Marchment, feeding it across. At 9:19, Justin Brazeau scored the second and final goal for the Bruins to cut it to 4-2 on the power play when he finished a wraparound attempt by Trent Frederic.

   Despite outshooting the Stars 10-7, Roope Hintz struck the Bruins' empty net for a 5-2 final late in the third period.

Casey DeSmith on the third period and the Bruins: "When you're trying to hold on to a lead, it's tough because the other team brings everything they have," - "Not that we sat back, but playing a little bit more careful and calculated. So, I just thought they were a little bit desperate and they brought it in the third period."

Matt Poitras on the loss and where the Bruins can improve: "We came out slow, and we can't wait until the second half of the game to find our legs and find a way to push... The third period, we kind of dominated, put them on their heels - we just need to find a way to do that for the whole 60 minutes," - "Stay out of the box, don't do long stretches of 5-on-4... eventually the other team is going to make plays."

Notes:

- Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin recorded three points (one goal, two assists)... Jason Robertson played in his 300th NHL career game, and Roope Hintz played in his 400th NHL career game.

- Casey DeSmith made a total of 25 saves for Dallas, and Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves for Boston.

- Jason Robertson scored his 137th career goal in his 300th career game, which marks this as the second-most by a Stars/North Stars player through 300 games behind Dino Ciccarelli, who scored 158 goals.

- The three power-play goals scored in the second period tie a team record for the most in a single period since the franchise's move to Dallas in 1993.

- Through their first seven games, Dallas had just been 2-for-21 on the power play... They had also gone a total of six games without allowing a power play goal before allowing Justin Brazeau's (the Stars led the League going into the game at 95.5% on the penalty kill)...

- Pete DeBoer won his 618th game, and takes sole possession of 21st place on the all-time list, breaking a tie with both Bruce Boudreau and Jacques Lemaire.

- David Pastrnak's opening goal was the 78th time he opened the scoring, the most among all players since his debut season in 2014-15.

- Brad Marchand hasn't scored his first goal yet of the season (eight games)... It's his longest goal-scoring season-opening drought since his nine-game drought in 2010-11.