Wish upon a falling star

Boston exploded for four unanswered goals and then kept a quiet Dallas offense at bay to held defeat the recently high-flying Stars 4-1 in Dallas Wednesday..

It was the sixth straight undefeated game for the Bruins and their first victory over the Stars this season. The team is 4-1-2 on their just ended seven games-in-seven days road trip and has moved themselves into contention for a low playoff seed.

Jochan Hecht scored two goals and notched an assist to be named the top star of the game. The youngster took only three shots on goal and drilled two of them, earning his sharpshooting stripe for the night. He finished the game at +1.

He now has eleven on the season and leads the team in points (11-14-25), and is second behind Bill Guerin (12) in goals scored. Both goals came in the later half of the first two periods and off Andy McDonald passes.

Dallas marred the Andrew Raycroft shutout with a cheap Michael Ryan goal in the third period, as he nutted one past Raycroft. The stifling Bruins defense limited the stars to only seventeen shots on goal, sixty-four percent of their season average entering the game. It was also approximately fifty percent of the normal shots allowed by Boston in a given game.

Andy McDonald (1-2-3, +1) and Keith Tkachuk (1-0-1, +1) earned the second and third game stars, respectively, for their performances.

The fourth goal of the game came courtesy of a returning Matt Hartigan, who sat out the Toronto game for coach's reasons. In seven minutes of ice time he took one shot, scored on it, and delivered a crushing body blow to Pavel Vorobiev for good measure.

Bruins coach Robbie Ftorek felt his team was better in getting shots on goal. "When we play physical, we play better," Ftorek said. "We can skate and shoot and can be big goal scorers in this league."

Boston now has a slim hold on the #8 slot in the Wales Conference, but has played more games than the three closest competitors. The team is tied for the eighth best winning percentage in the conference, and nineteenth best in the league.

The Bruins return home for a brief two game homestand Thursday night against the Blues and Rangers, then return to the road for three more away games. "We're looking forward to the second half of the season, where we have essentially a nine game homestand," GM Joshua Anderson said. "In the meantime, we just fight along and persevere."