Kalman: Bruins' Impressive Comeback In Dallas A Credit to Commitment, Team Play--Not The Fight
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Bruins deserve tons of credit for capping their 4-2-0 road trip with a dramatic 7-3 comeback win against the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
That's why no one should insult their effort by saying it had anything to do with Adam McQuaid's defeat of Stars forward Antoine Roussel in a fight at 3:12 of the second period.
The Bruins, who trailed 3-1 at the time, exploded for three goals later in the second period and then tacked on three more in the third to earn their second win of the season against a Western Conference playoff team and maintain their hold on second place in the Atlantic Division.
But they rolled past the Stars because Brad Marchand continued to have the hottest pair of hands in the land, numerous players who have been skating zombies contributed to the cause in different ways and Tuukka Rask was impenetrable over the final 40 minutes. The fight was just a footnote.
After McQuaid's bout, the Bruins' play didn't improve much. They were still outshot by the Stars 6-3 in the time between the fight and Vernon Fiddler's high-sticking penalty at 11:25. In that span, the Bruins had 10 shot attempts to Dallas' eight. Even after Fiddler's penalty, the Bruins gave up a scoring chance that resulted in Rask freezing the puck for a faceoff in the Boston zone.
If there was any momentum from the fight, it surely had deflated by the time Marchand started the rally. Marchand scored his second goal of the game to cut the lead to 3-2 with help from Jimmy Hayes, who was one of the Bruins' worst culprits in them producing two snoozefests (a 2-1 overtime win in Columbus and a 2-0 loss to Nashville) on Tuesday and Thursday. Hayes loves to boast about his big body and he finally put it to good use by pressuring Dallas into a giveaway on the forecheck and then screening the goaltender to help Marchand's shot get past Kari Lehtonen.
The Bruins then tied the game on a fortuitous bounce (hard-working teams get those) off Kevan Miller's wrist shot, which resulted in a rare goal by the defenseman after the puck hopped in the slot. However, the Bruins wouldn't have gained possession had David Pastrnak and Joonas Kemppainen not created a little havoc behind the Stars' net.
Then it was David Krejci's turn to get his nose a little dirty to set up Loui Eriksson's go-ahead goal. The Boston center blocked a clearing pass with a heavy forecheck and then fed the puck to the front for Eriksson to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead. The Stars put up little resistance from there, so Krejci (power play), Brett Connolly (empty net) and Matt Beleskey (power play) stuck the nails in the coffin.
Along the way Tyler Seguin was limited to no points and one shot on net. Seguin skated almost 10 minutes against Bruins captain Zdeno Chara and didn't land a shot on net in that time. In fact, Seguin's Corsi For against Chara was just 35.3. Linemate Jamie Benn was at 40.0 Corsi For against Chara and a rotation of right defensemen.
So let's give credit where it's due. The Bruins took the ice for the finale of a six-game-in-10-day road trip against the third-ranked team in the NHL without center Ryan Spooner and fell into a 3-1 hole. And then they scored six straight goals with 11 players taking part in those goals. Their best defenseman helped shut down one of the best forward lines in the league and their goaltender was at the top of his game.
The Bruins beat the Stars because they played the type of team game that must make general manager Don Sweeney salivate at the thought of re-signing Eriksson and adding a top-four defenseman (after making a deal with the devil, of course). They didn't win because their guy beat up a Dallas guy 10 minutes before the Bruins began to show any signs they could hang with the Stars.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
