The Boston Bruins entered Tuesday night's showdown with the Western Conference-leading Stars in Dallas with four losses in their last five games.
They needed a quality performance to get back on track and maintain (or improve) their 7-point lead atop the NHL standings, and several players delivered.
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One of them was Pavel Zacha, who tied the game with a goal at 10:12 of the third period and then helped set up the winning tally in overtime scored by David Pastrnak.
Shortly after a strong penalty kill by the Bruins, Zacha carried the puck with speed out of his own zone and into the Stars' end of the ice. The puck eventually found Charlie McAvoy, who made a tremendous feed to Pastrnak for a one-timer that beat Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger. It was Pastrnak's team-leading 39th goal of the season.
Check out the impressive sequence that led to Boston's 3-2 victory in the video below:
Zacha's two points versus the Stars give him 12 (seven goals, five assists) in the 11 games since he signed a four-year, $ 19 million contract extension with the Bruins last month. His 37 points this season are a new career-high, too, and there are still 29 games left in the regular season.
The Bruins improved to a league-best 40-8-5 with Tuesday's win, and they are 9-1-2 against the top nine teams in the Western Conference.