Bruins Rally To Beat Stars 7-3
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DALLAS (AP) — Brad Marchand's goal in the second period ended Boston's drought on the power play, and got the Bruins going on a big scoring night.
Marchand scored twice and added an assist to help Bruins rally for a 7-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
Most important was his power-play goal with 6:36 remaining in the second after Dallas had built a 3-1 lead. The Bruins had failed on their previous 21 man-advantage chances, and then got two more power-play scores — by Dave Krejci and Matt Beleskey — in the third period.
"It was big for the team that the power play was able to come up big tonight and help us get this win," Marchand said.
Marchand's score also started a string of six unanswered goals for Boston.
"We were getting a lot of looks on a lot of our power plays but the pucks weren't going in," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Tonight we were able to capitalize. Our guys did a great job in front of that net there battling for those loose pucks or even battling to create a good screen on their goaltender."
Loui Eriksson, Kevan Miller and Brett Connolly also scored for the Bruins.
Antoine Roussel had a goal and an assist, Ales Hemsky and Patrick Sharp also scored and Jason Demers had two assists for the Stars, all in the first period. Kari Lehtonen finished with 35 saves.
Tuukka Rask had 26 saves, and shut out the Stars over the final two periods.
"I think it was good that we had the intermission there to kind of regroup," Rask said. "Obviously after that you're just trying to keep plugging away and trying to get that goal because it's only a two-goal game, so you can't afford to let in another goal."
Marchand's second goal of the game pulled the Bruins to 3-2 and gave him a career-high 30 goals — including 15 in the last 16 games.
It came 1 second before Vernon Fiddler's high sticking penalty expired.
"We were a second away from killing the penalty," Dallas coach Lindy Ruff said. "But the game turned about 7 minutes into the second period, where we weren't good enough with the puck."
Miller tied it 35 seconds later, and Eriksson put the Bruins ahead for good with 52 seconds left in the second with his 21st of the season.
Dennis Seidenberg, Patrice Bergeron, Joe Morrow and Zdeno Chara each had two assists for Boston.
Hemsky put the Stars on the scoreboard first, taking a drop pass from Demers and shooting the puck into the upper left corner of the net with just over eight minutes left in the opening period.
Marchand tied it by faking a shot from the left of the net, pulling the puck back and putting in a backhand from the right side with Lehtonen out of position with 6:36 left in the first.
Disputed goals by Roussel and Sharp 44 seconds apart gave the Stars a two-goal lead with 3 1/2 minutes remaining in the period.
The Bruins challenged Roussel's goal, saying that he had knocked the puck in with a high stick and interfered with Rask. The referees ruled that Sharp scored on a breakaway because Boston's Adam McQuaid intentionally knocked the net off its mooring before the puck could cross the goal line.
Krejci scored at 4:50 of the third period on a shot from the blue line through traffic in front of the net.
Connolly's empty-netter made it 6-3 with 2:44 remaining, and Beleskey capped the scoring in the final minute.
NOTES: The Bruins equaled their season high in goals, also achieved Dec. 29 at Ottawa. Dallas had allowed seven goals on Nov. 24, also against Ottawa. ... Hemsky has three goals and two assists in his last six games. ... Krejci played in his 600th NHL game. ... Boston has won four of the last five games in Dallas, and three in a row. ... The Bruins completed a six-game road trip 4-2-0. They are 20-7-3 on the road this season, but only 12-14-3 at home. ... Sharp's 17th goal was his first in 19 games. Roussel has scored seven of his nine goals at home.
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