BOSTON — The Boston Bruins ended their homestand with a 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night at TD Garden.
The Bruins came back from deficits of 1-0 and 3-1, but they were unable to score a tying goal in the third period. Backup goaltender Niklas Svedberg gave up three goals — two scored by Dallas forward Jamie Benn — and was pulled at the beginning of the second period. It was Svedberg’s first start since Jan. 8.
Boston begins a five-game Western Conference road trip Friday night against the Vancouver Canucks.
Here are three quick takeaways from Bruins-Stars.
1. Sloppy First Period Puts Bruins in 3-1 Hole
The Bruins received a five-minute power play after Stars forward Antoine Roussel was ejected for cross checking B’s defenseman Adam McQuaud up high. Not only did the Bruins fail to score with the man advantage, they also gave up a shorthanded goal. Stars forward Vernon Fiddler intercepted a poor blue line pass from David Krejci to Torey Krug and skated towards the B’s net on a breakaway.
The Bruins tied the game 1-1 with a goal from Krejci, but they allowed the Stars to regain the lead less than four minutes later when Jamie Benn powered his way to the net and roofed a shot that beat Svedberg top shelf. Bruins defenseman Dougie Hamilton was unable to slow Benn’s drive to the net and Svedberg was too deep in the crease to cut down the Dallas captain’s angle.
The Stars doubled their lead with another goal from Benn at the 17:53 mark of the period. Patrick Eaves blocked a point shot and the puck bounced to Benn in the right faceoff circle. Svedberg wasn’t able to move from right to left in time to stop it, and McQuaid couldn’t clear the puck before Benn got his stick on it.
Hamilton took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at the end of the period to put the Bruins on the penalty kill to open the second period.
2. Bruins Bounce Back With Better Second PeriodÂ
Tuukka Rask replaced Svedberg in net to begin the second period and the Bruins responded with better execution and focus. Patrice Bergeron started the scoring just 26 seconds into the period by capitalizing on a 2-on-1 scoring chance with Brad Marchand for a shorthanded goal.
Hamilton tied the score with his ninth goal of the season at the 6:42 mark.
The Bruins received a four-minute penalty after Ryan Garbutt high-sticked Hamilton at 13:06, but they gave up another shorthanded goal, this one to Stars defenseman Trevor Daley.
3. Bruins Struggle On Power Play
The Bruins entered Tuesday’s game with a league-low 122 power-play attempts, and they weren’t able to capitalize on a whopping 9:00 of time with the man advantage against a Stars penalty kill ranked 24th in the league.
The Bruins weren’t able to score on a five-minute power play in the first period, took a penalty that wiped out half of a four-minute power play in the second period and were 0-for-4 with just nine shots overall. Boston also gave up its first two shorthanded goals of the season.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
