While a playoff berth is not officially secure yet, the Boston Bruins showed something special in a crucial game against one of their closest competitors in the Eastern Conference their last time out.
First-year coach Marco Sturm’s Bruins — who rallied from a 3-0 third-period deficit to post Sunday’s 4-3 shootout win at the Columbus Blue Jackets — look to continue their momentum against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night in their third-to-last home game. Both teams had back-to-backs over the weekend.
With eight regular-season games to play, Boston (42-24-8, 92 points) holds a four-point lead over Columbus to be the No. 1 wild-card team in the East. The Bruins are riding a three-game win streak and 6-2-2 mark in their last 10 games.
“I think it will absolutely help us with confidence,” Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “For the stakes at the end of the year and moving forward, we have that in our head like, ‘Hey boys, we’ve done it before, we’ve been there before, we’ve done it.’ We can have that real belief.”
The game turned out to be a possible confidence-builder, but it did not start that way.
Boston fell into the 3-0 deficit in the first period and climbed out of it with three goals in the third, including Pavel Zacha’s tally with 11 seconds remaining in regulation. The win was just the Bruins’ second this season when trailing after two periods (2-20-1).
“An eye-opener,” Sturm said of the slow start. “(Saturday’s 6-3 win over the Minnesota Wild) was probably one of our best, most complete games, and the guys thought it would be easy or maybe the same. But it isn’t. (Columbus) came out on fire.”
David Pastrnak had the longest active point streak in the league snapped at 12 games (seven goals, 13 assists) during Sunday’s comeback win. Jeremy Swayman (21 saves) continued his standout play, though, improving to 8-2-1 this month.
Dallas (44-18-12, 100 points) is one of just two teams — both in the Central Division — with its playoff berth sealed. The Stars hit the century mark in points in a 2-1 overtime loss to the desperate Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.
“One hundred points is not something you take lightly in the league,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “(Sunday) was a hard game, symbolic of how hard it is to get here. I thought it was a real stingy contest and I thought both teams looked tired. It was a pretty even affair and they got the extra point, so we’ll just move on.”
Gulutzan’s team is in the midst of a 4-4-2 stretch and became even worse on the injury front when top-line winger Michael Bunting (lower-body injury) exited during Sunday’s game.
Fellow forwards Nathan Bastian and Sam Steel were injured in the previous two contests, while forwards Radek Faksa and Tyler Seguin are on injured reserve. Faksa and forward Roope Hintz (lower-body injury) are expected back closer to the playoffs, but Seguin’s season is over.
On Sunday, the Stars were outshot 30-18 and scored their only goal when 24-year-old rookie Arttu Hyry turned a steal into a short-handed snipe in the second period. It was his first career goal.
The team’s current personnel state could lead to more opportunity for the Finland native, who has played in 13 NHL games and 27 for AHL affiliate Texas this season.
“It’s shift by shift,” Hyry said. “That’s how I like it to be. That’s how you stay in the present and not look too forward too much.”
In the teams’ previous meeting on Jan. 20, Dallas scored twice in each period and led 6-0 on the way to a 6-2 home win.
Jason Robertson, whose 40 goals share the team lead with Wyatt Johnston, scored twice in that game. Former Northeastern University standout Justin Hryckowian had a goal and two assists.
