BOSTON — The Bruins’ penalty and turnover problems continued and so did their slide.
After taking an early lead, Boston gave up four straight goals in the middle of the game and fell to the Dallas Stars, 5-2, on Thursday at TD Garden.
The Bruins, who are 0-2-1 in their last three games will host Toronto on Saturday.
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Boston actually started on a high note. Matt Poitras laid a perfect pass into the slot for David Pastrnak, who snapped it by Casey DeSmith, 11:57 into into the game.
After Matt Duchesne tied it 1-1 late in the first, Dallas scored three straight power play goals including one by former Bruin Tyler Seguin to take a 4-1 lead with 11:01 left.
Justin Brazeau scored his first goal of the season to cut the deficit to 4-2 after the second, but the Bruins never got closer.
Jeremy Swayman made 26 saves for Boston, while DeSmith, Dallas’ backup, stopped 25.
Takeaways:
MARCHAND IS STRUGGLING — At morning skate on Thursday, Brad Marchand admitted he’s yet to play at the top of his game this season. That continued against the Stars. Marchand still hasn’t scored this season. He had two penalties and had a team-high three giveaways.
BRUINS HAVE PENALTY KILL PROBLEMS — After allowing three power-play goals against the Stars, the Bruins have allowed nine this season in 40 opportunities. Their penalty-killing percentage continues to dip, falling to 77.5.
Nine of the 29 goals they’ve allowed have been while shorthanded. Add to that two shorthanded goals allowed and over a third of the goals they’ve given up haven’t been at 5-on-5.
GIVEAWAYS — The Bruins continued to struggled controlling the puck. They had 13 giveaways in the first period and 21 in the game.
ZADAROV STREAK — Penalties and killing them remained a problem for the Bruins, but for the first time this season, Nikita Zadorov wasn’t the problem as he snapped his seven-game streak of penalty box visits.
