Boston Bruins 3, Dallas Stars 0

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — Coming off a game Wednesday where everything went right, the Stars had a complete reversal of fortune Friday night. Nothing went their way as they suffered their first regulation loss of the season, falling 3-0 to the Boston Bruins at American Airlines Center.

"It's not really frustrating, but it's disappointing," said Stars head coach Marc Crawford. "It's tough to beat a team as good as Boston if you don't have everybody going, and we didn't have everybody going tonight for whatever reason.

"During the course of the season, you are going to have some highs and lows. You are going to have some games where everything goes right and some where not very much does. The game tonight fell in the latter category."

Boston would have fallen into the former category. The Bruins, who have gotten off to a slow start in 2009-10, rolled out their best game of the season, using their size and speed to thwart the Stars.

"They are pretty big, they've got a good forecheck and had a lot of speed going," said Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas. "We knew what to expect, but we didn't play our best game, obviously."

The Stars, who came into the game averaging a league-high 4.0 goals per game, were shutdown by the Bruins defense and goaltender Tim Thomas, who stopped 27 shots to get his first shutout of the season.

"I thought we were guilty of going to the easy areas too much," said Crawford. "You've got to pay the price against defenders like [Zdeno] Chara and [Mark] Stuart. Our guys didn't match their intensity in front of the net."

The Bruins got the only goal they would end up needing a little more than midway through the first period. That came on their only power play chance of the game after Mike Ribeiro an undisciplined high sticking penalty in front of the Boston net. Just 29 seconds into the power play chance, Boston's Marc Savard fired a shot from just above the goal line that bounced off Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas and into the net.

“A bad penalty,” Ribeiro said. “They scored their first goal, they got momentum out of it. I just reacted, it’s not a penalty you should take after the whistle, and it’s not like our PK is first in the league.”

Said Crawford: "Mike does a lot of scoring for us. You're going to have penalties and you've to find ways to kill it. I didn't think that was a killer by any stretch. I didn't think we were dead when were down 3-0."

The Bruins extended the lead to 3-0 by scoring two goals a little more than four minutes apart in second period to take control of the game on the scoreboard. Boston, which was playing its first road game of the season, improved to 3-3-0.

"We were disappointed with our homestand," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. "We knew we'd have to redeem ourselves on the road. Tonight looked more like where we want to be as a team."

The Stars, who are now 2-1-3, face another stiff test Saturday in Chicago, taking on the Blackhawks, who are off to a 5-1-1 start.

Game recap

The Bruins dominated the first period, outshooting the Stars 14-7 and getting the only goal of the period. That came on a power play 12:32 into the game when Marc Savard came out from behind the goal line, put the puck on net from just below the right circle, and had it bounce of Stars defenseman Robidas and into the net.

The Bruins added two more goals in the second period to extend their lead to 3-0. Boston scored at 3:35 when Patrice Bergeron won an offensive zone draw and then deflected a Mark Stuart shot past Stars goalie Marty Turco to make it 2-0.

The Bruins extended the lead to 3-0 at the 7:59 mark of the second when Michael Ryder set up Savard, who scored on a one-timer off the rush from the right circle.

The Bruins came close to making it a 4-0 game late in the second, but Turco made three straight stops on Boston shorthanded chances in the final minute.

The Stars lost defenseman Nicklas Grossman early in the period when he took a puck in the face off the stick of Mark Recchi. Grossman was stitched up and returned to start the third period.