BOSTON — The Bruins had waited more than 27 months to get the hands on the Dallas Stars again. They weren't going to wait another second. Literally.
Bruins center Greg Campbell switched positions with Shawn Thornton to line up opposite Dallas agitator Steve Ott for the opening faceoff, and they dropped the gloves one second into play. After a delay to clean Campbell's blood off the ice, Thornton and Stars enforcer Krys Barch engaged in a lengthy and one-sided battle as Thornton sent Barch to the locker room for the night at the two-second mark.
Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid finally showed some patience on the game's third faceoff, waiting two seconds before fighting Brian Sutherby at the four-second mark, dropping the Stars winger with a right after a spirited exchange.
All this came in Dallas' first trip back to Boston since a Nov. 1, 2008 showdown that featured 146 penalty minutes, six fighting majors and seven misconducts, and the bad blood carried over despite the long wait between encounters.
"That was like we just continued the game from the last time they were here," Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference said after the Bruins posted an entertaining 6-3 win before a capacity crowd of 17,565 at the Garden. "It's what we expected, but not exactly what we planned, but that's the way it shakes out.
"The last one was a bit more of a gong show, but this was the oddest first shift of my career," Ference added. "I played four seconds and watched three fights and it took about 10 minutes. It was weird. I didn't even know what to do. I felt a little uncomfortable. I was just skating out there watching. But it was entertaining and it set the mood."
Ference found plenty to do on his second shift, as he dropped the gloves with Adam Burish just 3:51 into play. Ference scored the win in that dustup with a right that decked Burish to the delight of the Garden crowd.
"It's amazing when you close your eyes what happens," Ference said. "It's just one of those ones. I'm not a seasoned fighter, but that's what happens if you throw them and you're not too scared to get hit."
Ference had more appreciation for what his teammates did in their bouts.
"I feel bad for Soup because he bled so much, but he actually had a pretty good fight for the amount of blood loss he had," Ference said. "Thorty sure dukes it out and I love my partner. Quaider's got the best fights because he sports the mullet. I think he probably gets the cake no matter what."
Boston's brawlers, in turn, appreciated the way the rest of the team responded, as Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron scored on the Bruins' first two shots of the game to chase former Bruin Andrew Raycroft from the game without making a save.
"We all answered the bell and played well," Thornton said. "The guys that scored the goals made us look smart by scoring those goals too."
Bergeron added another goal and Thornton blasted a shot from the right circle to make it 4-0 as the Bruins completed the opening 20 minutes having played arguably their best period of the season.
"It's the most entertaining for sure," Ference said. "It's crazy to have that many goals and that much excitement. There were some good fights too. It had it all."
It almost wasn't enough though, as Dallas rallied to cut the lead to one before Boston secured the 6-3 victory in the third.
And once disaster was averted late, the team could fully revel in what had been a pretty remarkable start to the night.
"It was good to see," Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk said. "It certainly helped to get everybody into the game and the crowd into the game, that's for sure."
Boychuk wasn't around for that 2008 clash, so he wasn't certain how much carryover there was from that game.
"I'm not sure, maybe last time we played them," Boychuk said. "Maybe we just didn't like each other."
The Bruins did know they liked what they saw in this one, and so did the Garden faithful.
"I'm pretty sure the Bruins fans didn't mind it, so we'll leave it at that," Bruins coach Claude Julien said.
