Stars vs. Bruins Preview and Predictions

By Gracenote for Scores and Stats
by Gracenote on 01/14/2018

The Boston Bruins look to continue an offensive surge and extend their point streak to 13 games when they host the Dallas Stars on Monday afternoon. The Bruins rallied for a 4-3 shootout victory at Montreal on Saturday to improve to 9-0-3 in their last 12 contests and have scored 25 goals during a five-game span, giving them the third-most points in the Eastern Conference (55).

"We seem to be able to show that character. We seem to have a lot of it in this room," Bruins leading scorer Brad Marchand told reporters after the latest win. "We didn't have a great game. But we dug down and capitalized when it mattered." Boston has not lost in regulation since Dec. 14 at home against Washington and has won its last three meetings with Dallas, which dropped a 4-1 decision to Colorado on Saturday to finish a 4-2-0 homestand. The Stars only gave up 23 shots in the loss to Avalanche but surrendered three third-period goals to fall to 0-2-1 in their last three road contests. "We didn't have that extra push that we've been having lately," Dallas forward Tyler Pitlick told reporters. "When you're not feeling great, we've got to find a way to make it happen anyways and find plays and play hard. So that's something we've got to figure out."

TV: 1 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, FS Southwest (Dallas), NESN (Boston)

ABOUT THE STARS (24-17-3): Captain Jamie Benn scored the only goal in Saturday's loss, giving him five tallies and six assists over his last 10 games to pull even with Tyler Seguin and defenseman John Klingberg for the team lead at 40 points. Seguin has recorded seven of his club-high 21 goals in the last nine contests while Klingberg has netted two tallies and set up seven others during his six-game point streak. Alexander Radulov is just behind the top three with 39 points after posting two goals and five assists over his last three contests.

ABOUT THE BRUINS (24-10-7): Boston's top players are producing offensively, with Marchand collecting three goals and six assists in his last four games to push his team-best total to 41 points. David Pastrnak has recorded six of his 39 points in the last five contests and Patrice Bergeron (33 points) has notched six goals and three assists over his last five games. Tuukka Rask (15-8-4, .919 save percentage) has given up a total of nine goals in his last two outings but has not lost in regulation in his last 14 starts (12-0-2).

OVERTIME

1. Dallas G Ben Bishop has allowed 17 goals over his last nine games (6-3-0) but is 4-6-3 lifetime versus the Bruins.

2. Boston C David Krejci has registered two tallies and two assists in five contests since returning from a two-week injury absence.

3. Dallas C Mattias Janmark has collected four goals and three assists over his last seven games to push his season total to 23 points.

PREDICTION: Stars 4, Bruins 3