Winner of five straight games, the Boston Bruins were looking to extend it to six games on Tuesday night and sweep their four-game road trip that began with three wins against the California teams.
The final stop, however, was in Texas, at the American Airlines Center, against the Dallas Stars. Dallas has some key players out of the lineup and has struggled to score in bunches. However, the Bruins were just what they needed.
Boston allowed two regulation goals to Mikko Rantanen, and then the talented forward completed his hat trick in overtime with a power-play goal for a 3-2 victory. Picking seven out of eight points should be considered a dream trip for coach Marco Sturm and his club, given all the drama that happened with defenseman Nikita Zadorov.
The Black and Gold will return home to host the Nashville Predators on Thursday night at the TD Garden. After the extra-session loss to the Stars, young forward Matthew Poitras had dropped an honest quote.
Bruins' Matthew Poitras drops honest quote after OT loss to the Stars
Again, collecting seven out of a possible eight points should be considered a great trip. However, it was there for the taking in regulation, but a couple of plays in the defensive end in regulation gifted Dallas a pair of goals to force overtime. Poitras, who opened the scoring early in the first period, had a rather eye-opening quote for a young player following the loss.
"It sucks to kinda give this one away,'' said Poitras, per NESN. "but it was a good road trip, and we had a good time with each other... still sucks to not get that extra point."
It does stink that they were unable to earn the second point, but it shouldn't be surprising. First, the last game of a long trip is a difficult one. The light is there at the end of the tunnel, where you know you're going home to see your family and finally sleep in your own bed. Second, when you play with fire, you eventually get burned. The Black and Gold played with fire most of the night; in their own end, their inability to get pucks out hurt them.
The good news was that two of the young players, Poitras and James Hagens, scored the two goals, and the youth production continued. Frederic Brunet picked up the primary assist on Poitras' first-period goal. Still, it wasn't good enough against the Stars, and Poitras was right: it stinks and was a missed opportunity.
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