BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron had two goals and an assist to lift the Boston Bruins to a fight-filled 6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.
In the first 4 seconds of the game, there were three separate fights.
Stars agitator Steve Ott bloodied Boston's Gregory Campbell one second after the puck was dropped. That was followed by Boston's Shawn Thornton pounding Stars forward Krys Barch one second later. And then Boston's Adam McQuaid was fighting Dallas' Brian Sutherby 4 seconds in as the crowd roared with approval.
Mark Recchi added three assists and Tuukka Rask made 30 saves and won for the third time since Dec. 9. Boston won for the sixth time in its past eight games.
An energized Bruins team raced to a 2-0 lead in the first 1:20 courtesy of goals by Milan Lucic and Bergeron beating backup Stars goalie Andrew Raycroft. Raycroft was promptly removed after allowing goals on the only two shots he faced. He was replaced by Kari Lehtonen.
Boston's Andrew Ference and Dallas' Adam Burish squared off in the fourth fight of the period at 3:51.
Bergeron scored again at 9:35 mark of the first giving Boston a 3-0 lead and notching his fourth goal in the past four games overall and against Dallas.
Thornton made it 4-0 for Boston when his slap shot beat Lehtonen at 16:01.
Brenden Morrow cut Boston's lead to 4-2 with a short-handed goal 45 seconds into the third period. Brad Richards closed the gap to 4-3 only 2:48 later on a power play for Dallas.
Rookie Tyler Seguin scored an insurance goal for Boston with 14:29 left in the game.
Brad Marchand, who finished with a goal and two assists, added an empty-net goal for the Bruins.
Karlis Skrastins scored his third goal of the season midway through the second period for Dallas, who lost for the fourth time in five games following an eight-game unbeaten streak.
Notes
In the Stars' previous visit to Boston in 2008, there were 144 penalty minutes. … Daniel Paille received a match penalty for a head shot on Sutherby. … Dallas fell to 11-3-1 against the Eastern Conference. … Raycroft was traded by Boston to Toronto in 2006 for Rask, who was the 21st overall pick in the 2005 draft. … Zdeno Chara and Ott received 10-minute misconduct penalties after jawing at each other in the second period.