The Dallas Stars jumped out to a first-period lead and really never looked back in a dominant 6-2 win against the Boston Bruins at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.

Stars lines

• Steel – Duchene – Johnston
• Robertson – Hintz – Bourque
• Bäck – Hryckowian – Benn
• Blackwell – Faksa – Bastian

• Lindell – Heiskanen
• Harley – Lundkvist
• Lyubushkin – Petrovic  

• Oettinger
• DeSmith

Scratches: Mikko Rantanen (illness), Adam Erne, Kyle Capobianco

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Pure domination.

Dallas controlled this game in every facet. They won puck battles. They heavily outshot the Bruins. Their goaltending was solid when it needed to be, which wasn’t often. They completely shut down any zone entry attempts by the Bruins and swarmed them on their own breakouts. Boston essentially just threw blind passes to the weak side of the ice, hoping a teammate would get there. But they didn’t, and the Stars usually turned it right back in and went back on the attack.

Mavrik Bourque, Justin Hryckowian, Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Miro Heiskanen, Matt Duchene, Thomas Harley, Esa Lindell, and really, the entire Dallas roster, played a great game. Was it because of the absence of their superman, Mikko Rantanen? Perhaps they needed to get their team game back without the superstar to save the day?

No matter the reason, this team desperately needed a win. And a big one like this in which they dominated and blew out a good team, goes a long way.

“It just goes to show us we’re still one of the best teams in the league,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “Hopefully we can kind of carry the swagger we got from tonight into the next seven games until break.

Live game notebook

Period 1

• Let’s talk about Vladislav Kolyachonok just for a minute. The 24-year-old defenseman was waived by Dallas in December, in an effort to get him down to the AHL with healthy bodies returning to the NHL lineup. Boston claimed him, however, and away he went. Since then, he has played two games and been scratched in the rest. Boston placed him on waivers today. It seemed obvious that Dallas would re-claim him and, as long as no team above them put in a claim, send him straight to the Texas Stars. However, Dallas has 23 players on its roster, meaning there is no room to add off waivers. I am not sure whether they can claim him and then put a player down in the same day, like Erne or Nathan Bastian, but if not, they have not made any moves to free up the roster spot. So, tomorrow will be fun to watch to see whether Kolyachonok is able to reunite with his former team after only a month away. Oh, and Kolyachonok also took part in warmup tonight for Boston, which I found hilarious.
• The AAC is about half empty, and half of the fans that are here are wearing Black and Yellow for the Bruins. This has all the signs of a sleepy game… Maybe on both sides, as neither is super clean with their game or very tactical at creating chances around the net.
• Duchene is getting a huge opportunity tonight. He is both centering the top line and filling in for Rantanen on the top power play.
• The first power play for the Stars did not do a ton. Interestingly, the entire second unit came out after a minute. Usually, Rantanen and Robertson stay out or the top unit gets a full 90 seconds or so. Maybe because Rantanen is out, they opted to give both equal shares. PP2 was the more dangerous one on the first chance, with a couple of good cross-crease passes and a one-timer from the right circle by Mavrik Bourque.
• Bastian came in hard on the forecheck, knocked a Bruins defenseman off his skates, won the puck, landed another big hit, and then dropped the gloves with Jonathan Aspirot. Got the team a bit juiced and injected some life into a sleepy AAC.

• Sam Steel almost scored… On Jake Oettinger.
• As much as I complain about Dallas overpassing… this tic-tac-toe power-play goal after Robertson nearly beat Jeremy Swayman seconds before was well worth the extra passes. I think this has a lot to do with Dallas not racking up shots on goal. They know what they are capable of when they can connect on those passes. But even this sequence began with a shot that created some chaos and a puck retrieval. And oh my, was it pretty.

• The Dallas power play is now clicking. Robertson has been all over the ice, and he created another scramble around the net by shooting a one-timer and retrieving the puck. Duchene nearly landed a mini saucer pass flat on the blade of Hintz. Instead, it bounced over the stick, and Heiskanen forced Swayman to make a windmill glove save.
• And then PP2 gets back out there, Harley makes one more pass down to Bourque at the left of the crease, and Bourque gets stopped by a diving paddle before elevating the puck and scoring on the rebound.

Stars 2, Bruins 0

Period 2

• The first five minutes of this period were quite calm. A bit of pushing and shoving around the Boston net, but Alex Petrovic is smart enough not to give momentum to Boston by fighting Tanner Jeannot.
• Robertson made a nice play to poke the puck to center ice, so Bourque could jump on it, create a 2-on-1, and nearly find Hintz on the backdoor. That trio looks good so far.
• This is why you shoot the puck! Hryckowian won a Faceoff, Heiskanen bumped the puck over to Lindell, and Lindell spanked a one-timer that found its way through bodies and in. Shots work sometimes. Also the second assist of the game for Hyrkcowian, who won the draw and provided a drive-by screen on Swayman.

• A really good shift by Robertson-Duchene-Johnston after Robertson stayed on the ice longer than his line. They got the Bruins spinning and one broke a stick, Johnston made a filthy pass past two defenders at the blue line to get it to Petrovic with space, and they nearly tucked one.
• Hintz has been absolutely flying. Swayman just got his left pad on a rush shot from the slot off a great saucer pass by Robertson. Then, Hintz kicked a rebound to himself and chipped it off the far elbow between the crossbar and post. Doesn’t have the puck luck.
• Hryckowian celebrated after throwing the puck off Swayman from behind the net. Nobody knew if it was in except for No. 49, who was celebrating on his own and sort of going down the handshake line over at the Dallas bench. One quick replay shows the puck clearly went in. What a game from Hryckowian tonight.

• What a game for Dallas so far. Winning every battle, full roster is going, goals going in, holding Boston to 11 shots, and winning 4-0 after 40 minutes.

Stars 4, Bruins 0

Period 3

• While Bourque was doing an excellent job pinning the puck to the wall against three Bruins, Colin Blackwell recognized it and scurried over to the bench to allow Robertson to jump on and join his line. Robertson eventually got on and won the puck before using his reach on a beautiful wraparound far side. What a game.

• And very shortly after, Robertson double dips with an elite short-side shot over the shoulder of Swayman. It’s another good play by Bourque to get it over to Robertson, but it’s both a great shot and terrible goal to allow. Joonas Korpisalo came in to replace Swayman right after.

• David Pastrnak blasted a one-timer that was tipped by Morgan Geekie on the PP to ruin Oettinger’s shutout bid.
• Dallas seems to be riding off into the sunset a bit too early. The game is over, but Boston has now scored two straight to put a big damper on what was a perfect game before that.

Final: Stars 6, Bruins 2

Quotable

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan on the details of the game

“We got rid of all the micro stuff there, and we got into the macro stuff — working and winning your battles. We talked about doing everything your dad told you to do when you’re growing up: Let’s work hard, let’s get pucks to the net, let’s win our battles. And there was one other, too: It was, let’s have some fun doing it.”