Bruins beat Stars behind David Krejci, Nick Ritchie in chippy affair

What seemed like a boring start led to an exciting contest for the Bruins.

After outshooting the Stars 2-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game, the goals finally came and the Bruins came out of Thursday’s contest with a 4-3 win in an inspired effort.

Perhaps sparked by a David Krejci fight in the second period, the Bruins struck twice within two minutes in the middle frame and held on to beat Dallas to end their quick two-game homestand.

The energy didn’t all come from Krejci’s fisticuffs, though; Nick Ritchie earned a goal and an assist in his second game with the Bruins, and Charlie Coyle tied things late in the first to give the Bruins a chance.

An uneventful first half of the opening frame broke into action once the special teams got involved.

John Klingberg got his revenge following a Chris Wagner hit that sent the Stars defenseman flying. Moments later, Klingberg wound up from the point and got a shot through and past Jaroslav Halak with 17:38 gone in the first to put Dallas ahead 1-0 on the power play with Matt Grzelcyk in the box.

That lead didn’t survive to the second period.

The Bruins went to a late power play and Coyle knotted things up with just 15.8 seconds left.

Torey Krug sent a shot from the blue line towards Ben Bishop, who bobbled it and Coyle knocked it out of the air and into the net for a tie game heading into the first intermission.

As lethargic as the first frame was until the end, the Bruins found a spark in the second.

With 11:24 gone in the middle frame, Krejci scrapped with Joe Pavelski, his first fight since 2011. In the five minutes without Krejci — who got some serious shots in his fight — the Bruins tallied twice.

First, Brad Marchand netted his 26th tally of the season.

Charlie McAvoy brought the puck down low, and instead of shooting himself, waited for Marchand on the other side of the crease and sauced it over to him for a wide open net and the Bruins first lead of the night.

In less than a minute, that lead doubled.

Zdeno Chara made a pass from the slot to Ritchie up high, who scored on his first shot as a member of the Bruins to go ahead 3-1.

The Stars were on the power play to start the third, but they made it a one-goal game shortly after it expired. Denis Gurianov tipped in a shot from Esa Lindell just 1:18 into the frame.

David Pastrnak made sure that didn’t last long.

Ritchie — earning his second point since joining the Bruins — found Pastrnak streaking down the slot and the B’s winger found the net while in tight with 3:53 gone in the third. It was his 46th goal of the season.

Dallas made it a one-goal game with 2:24 left. The puck deflected off Tyler Seguin and in after Halak made an acrobatic save.

Anders Bjork was benched for the majority of the second period but returned to mostly regular shifts in the third, when Chris Wagner exited the game with an upper body injury.

Charlie McAvoy took a big hit from Corey Perry into the boards late in the third and got up slowly, but stayed on the bench.

The Bruins hit the road again with a contest in Long Island on Saturday afternoon.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2I18zXE