It looked more like a hardcore wrestling match rather than a hockey game. Bloody players and punches being thrown everywhere were the only sights to be seen in the Dallas Stars vs. the Boston Bruins matchup on Thursday night in front of a sold out crowd
of 17,565 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. For teams who haven’t met in nearly three years, it’s hard to believe that they would fight like this, but on the other hand the last time they did meet in October 2008, it wasn’t less than a royal rumble.
It, without a doubt, can be called the wildest match of the season.
Three fights broke out within the first 4 seconds of game time, indicating that hard feelings from 2008 are still fresh.
"I haven't seen it [three fights at the start of the game like that]," Surprised Stars coach Marc Crawford said, “its funny ... two teams that don't see each other very much, It shows you; you can't take anything for granted."
Boston most certainly humiliated Dallas not just because of the fighting (both teams were almost equal in that respect) but because of outscoring them and, at the end, winning by an overwhelming 6-3 and that shouldn’t be something to be proud of, although
the Boston Bruins probably feel pretty good about the victory.
"I don't really know what set (the fights) off, maybe just a little chest-thumping just to start it off," a humble Dallas captain, Brenden Morrow, said, "I think you use those things to create momentum, and they could go either way. We just made some bad
decisions. We were just as excited as they were, but we were just a little bit more reckless. They deserved that lead they got.” It is clear that mistakes were realized by the team and maturity came into the scene.
More on fights later, let’s get back to the match.
Boston Centre Patrice Bergeron played exceptionally well, making 2 out of his 4 attempted shots, and picking up an assist both in the first period. The Bruins scored 4 goals in the first period 3 of them in the first 10 minutes. It seemed that the match
had ended as the chances of catching up looked slim.
But Dallas came back, scoring their first in the second period and another 2 in the first 4 minutes of the third period. 5 minutes in, the Dallas seemed to be reorganizing and putting a great defense strategy into play but the next 30 seconds put all their
hard work on fire as the Bruins scored 2 more for an inevitable win. It was rookie Tyler Seguin’s goal with 15 minutes to go in the last that really sealed the deal for the Bruins. Anything after that was just the cherry on top of the chocolate mountain. Brad
Marchand had the net to himself scoring on an empty net with 17:40 showing on the clock.
Andrew Raycroft, goalie for Dallas, was pulled out of the game within 2 minutes in the start for letting 2 goal attempts through and lighting up the red light. Both goalies after that performed at par saving 29 out of 32 and 30 out of 33 for Dallas and Boston
respectively.
"Usually against Dallas it is interesting in this building," a positive Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We got their starting lineups and we knew they wanted to start with a physical edge and we were ready."
Now back to the good stuff.
Steve Ott of the Stars started beating on Gregory Campbell and bruised him up pretty good; it was almost as he was throwing left and right punches simultaneously. The next brawl came with Boston’s Shawn Thorton avenging his team-mate by thrashing Krys Barch,
and a match which could be called at the same level was between Bruin Adam McQuaid and Star Brian Sutherby. All this went on within the first 4 seconds, bewildering and, at the same time. making the crowd go wild with excitement.
Both teams are number 3 in their respective conferences and have made the NHL all the more exciting to watch.
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