Boston Bruins Leave Dallas Seeing Stars

The Boston Bruins came back to the garden tonight and left Dallas seeing stars beating them 5-1.

This game had everything you could want in a NHL tilt.  Scoring, hitting, agitation, fighting.  I will say this about Dallas, the only two players that showed up for this game was Ott and Avery and they set the tone of the game.  The problem was for Dallas, the Bruins were more than ready for the challenge.

In the first, Blake Wheeler made a nice pass from behind the net to Marco Sturm who beat Marty Turco with a nice wrist shot for the first goal of the game. 

Five minutes later Sean Avery put a shot on net and it got past Tim Thomas and I am sure Timmy would love to get that one back.  There was a lot of talking going on for the rest of the first period and you could just feel the tension on the ice building.  Ott and Avery are doing the most jawing.

In the second, the Bruins came out flat again.  The Bruins had a disasterous second period in Calgary on Thursday night and the plan was not to allow it to happen again. 

Thornton went after Ott who made a low hit on Yelle of the Bruins. Patrice Bergeron pick pocketed the Dallas defenseman and slips it past Turco making the score 2-1.  Tim Thomas got run by Neal of the Stars and this is where the game came unglued.  The Bruins get a series of penalties and Tim Thomas stood on his head to keep the period at a 2-1 Bruins lead going into the third.

Then in the third the Bruins had to keep their composure and go for the two points that was 20 minutes away.  Five minutes into the third, Bruins Phil Kessel broke down the right side of the ice receiving a cross ice pass from Marc Savard, came into the zone and made a beautiful toe drag and put a rocket of a snapshot past Marty Turco to give the Bruins a little breathing room 3-1. 

Then, at the 15:06 mark of the third, Bruins Andrew Ference just laid out Steve Ott with a beautiful open ice hit.  The play went down into the corner and Sean Avery came to Ott's defense and took on Ference who came out swinging and took it to Avery.  Andrew Ferrence said after the game "that kind of play is just sugar on top". 

Four minutes and change later, a heavy weight battle between Thornton and Barch happened at center ice and it didn't disappoint.  Both men landed some solid shots that went on for some time. 

Two minutes later Mark Stuart received the puck in the high slot and had a great snap shot beating Marty Turco. Then three minutes later, a quick tape to tape pass from PJ Axelsson set up Marco Sturm for his second of the night to cap off the game for the Bruins 5-1 victory.

Game notes:  Dallas had 36 shots on net to the Bruins 25.  The Bruins had 77 minutes of penalties and Dallas had 69.  Marco Sturm broke out of his scoring slump netting two goals tonight.  This is a weapon the Bruins needed to wake up.  Blake Wheeler had a solid game tonight and continues to grow as a player.  Shane Hnidy stepped his game up and it was very noticeable.  Lucic wanted to go with Ott all game and when Ott got the gate early that ended his chances.  This is the only meeting between the Bruins and the Stars.

This was the best games of the season for the Bruins playing a full 60 minutes.  This game had a lot of team unity and everyone on the Bruins got involved.  This leads into four days until the next game and the 6-3-3 Boston Bruins are playing at a very high level.

Next game: Thursday evening at the Garden against an original six team in the Toronto Maple Leafs.