Dallas Stars @ Boston Bruins 5-3 - 02/10

The Dallas Stars penalty kill ranks in the bottom third of the NHL, but Tuesday it was a weapon. Defenseman Trevor Daley scored the second of two shorthanded goals by the Stars at 13:42 of the second period, and Dallas finished a winning road trip with a 5-3 victory against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. Forward Vernon Fiddler scored a shorthanded goal in the first period for the Stars, who have eight shorthanded goals this season. Forward Jamie Benn scored two even-strength goals, Erik Cole scored an empty-net goal, and goaltender Kari Lehtonen made 41 saves. The Stars (25-21-8) finished their road trip 2-1-0. The Bruins (28-19-7) were the only team which had not allowed a shorthanded goal this season. Boston, which has lost three of its past four games, were 0-for-4 on the power play. Boston starting goalie Niklas Svedberg allowed three goals on 10 shots in the first period and was replaced by Tuukka Rask, who made 20 saves, to start the second. Stars center Tyler Seguin, who missed Dallas' morning skate because of an illness, was in the lineup for his second game in Boston since he was traded by the Bruins in the 2013 offseason. He had two shots on goal. A five-minute major for cross-checking against Dallas forward Antoine Roussel didn't hurt the Stars. Fiddler scored on a breakaway at 7:28 after stealing a pass by Bruins center David Krejci at the Dallas blue line for a 1-0 lead, and the Bruins failed to capitalize on the rest of the power play. Krejci made up for his error by scoring the goal that tied the game 1-1 at 10:43 from in front of Lehtonen. After Milan Lucic stole a pass at the left wall, he shot the puck to the front of the net. David Pastrnak passed to Krejci for a redirection. Jamie Benn gave the Stars a two-goal lead before the period ended. He beat Svedberg with a high wrist shot at 14:38 while warding off the defense of Dougie Hamilton. Benn put the Stars ahead 3-1 at 17:53 when he scored on a rebound of a Jordie Benn shot that deflected off teammate Patrick Eaves in front of the net. With Rask in net, the Bruins rallied. Patrice Bergeron scored a shorthanded goal on the back end of a 2-on-1 with Brad Marchand 26 seconds into the second period to cut the Dallas lead to 3-2. The Bruins tied the score 3-3 when Hamilton found a loose puck to the right of the slot after a Torey Krug shot hit teammate Chris Kelly in front. Hamilton's shot beat Lehtonen at 6:42. The Stars regained the lead with their second shorthanded goal during a double-minor penalty on Ryan Garbutt. Daley made an end-to-end rush and fired a shot from the high slot on Rask. The rebound went right back to Daley, who flipped it over Rask for a 4-3 lead at 13:42. Cole scored into the empty net with 33 seconds remaining.

Stars Quotes

Lindy Ruff: "It was a different type of game when it comes to, you know, three shorthanded goals in the game. It looked like Boston was making a push when Daley scored his shorthanded goal. It kind of turned the momentum back in our favor and I thought we played a pretty smart game after that. Well that's real good. I think you're looking at the schedule and you're hoping to get four out of six on the road and we got four out of six the hard way, and I just think that we've been playing good hockey. We've had some tough, some really tough losses as a team, but I thought, again, our penalty killing tonight was excellent. It was excellent in New York when we needed it to be and that’s a big part of the game right now."
Tyler Seguin: "Not great [how he felt]. I definitely tried to keep things simple out there and play good defense. I was happy to walk away with two points; that was a big win for us."
Jamie Benn: "It's [shorthanded scoring] just hard work and determination. I thought [Fiddler] had a great shot there and then Daley just didn't give up on the play and found way to score that second one there."