Boston, MA – Brad Marchand‘s two-goal night powered the Boston Bruins past the visiting Dallas Stars 3-1 on Opening Night at TD Garden. A sell-out crowd of 17,850 witnessed Marchand’s brace book-end Jake DeBrusk‘s game-winning goal while Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves to become the first Bruins rookie goalie to start and win an opener since 1995.
Dallas defenseman Ryan Suter drew a Hooking call at 9:35 but Boston’s Craig Smith was whistled for Tripping at 10:58.
Marchand drew a penalty on Suter after Marchand picked off a breakout pass at the Stars blue line. Marchand was awarded a penalty shot on the play. The Bruins forward beat Braden Holtby (38 saves) blocker-side low to give the Bruins the 1-0 at 17:38.
“The only thing I was thinking about was ‘don’t miss it,” said Marchand of his penalty shot.
Dallas evened up the score at 9:15 of the second period when Smith failed to clear the puck from the Bruins zone. Tanner Kero kept the offensive zone play alive for the Stars and set up a wide-open Luke Glendening in the slot. Glendening sniped a shot past Swayman against the low post on the goalie’s right side for his first of the year.
The Bruins had a power-play chance at 11:29 when Stars captain Jamie Benn was sent off for Cross-Checking. But again, the Bruins had the man advantage negated by a penalty of their own.
Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy, newly re-signed for $76 million over eight years, was called for Hooking when he hauled down Glendening on another scoring bid in front of Swayman. The Bruins goalie made the stop this time.
DeBrusk gave the Bruins the go-ahead goal at 4:43 of the third period when his fore-checking led to a giveaway by Stars forward Roope Hintz along the boards that Erik Haula picked up and dished across the ice to Nick Foligno. Foligno’s shot was initially saved by Holtby by DeBrusk crashed the net to bang in the rebound for his first goal of the season.
“I just tried to get in the scoring area,” said DeBrusk on the eve of his 25th birthday. “It was a pretty quick play, I saw the puck was loose and tried to get a stick on it.”
Marchand’s empty-net goal at 18:23 sealed the deal and earned the Bruins their first two points of the 2021-22 NHL season.
“We tried to play behind their (Dallas) defense,” said Bruins Head Coach Bruce Cassidy. “We tried to put some pressure on them and eventually it paid off.”
“We were waiting to see how they were going to play instead of taking the play to them, simple as that,” Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. “Disappointing.”
The Stars (1-1-0) play Sunday in Ottawa against the Senators at 5:00 pm EST. The Bruins play next in Philadelphia against the Flyers on Wednesday at 7:30 pm.
