Bruins rookies Beecher, Lohrei score first NHL goals in victory over Stars

DALLAS (AP) — Boston rookie defenseman Mason Lohrei pulled the puck out of his pocket, the keepsake from his first NHL goal. John Beecher had one, too.

Beecher and Lohrei became the first Boston rookies in more than six years to score their first goals in the same game, doing so less than four minutes apart in the first period to put the Bruins ahead to stay in a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Monday night.

“Had to steal my thunder a little bit I guess,” Beecher, who scored first, said with a smile.

“That’s special. that’s something that’s going to get us rolling off right off the bat,” Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, who stopped 34 shots, said of the rookie scorers. "They’re not even close to done yet.”

Brad Marchand added a power-play goal in the third period for the Eastern Conference-leading Bruins (10-1-1), who rebounded from their first regulation loss two nights earlier at Detroit. It was the sixth goal this season for Marchand, the first-year Boston captain.

Central Division leader Dallas had its net empty and an extra skater when Joe Pavelski scored his fifth goal with 27 seconds left. They had a power play for the final 5.7 seconds after a tripping penalty by Hampus Lindholm. Miro Heiskanen got off a shot that appeared to get by Swayman, but then bounced off the post as time expired.

The Stars just couldn't overcome the slow start when coming off a three-game trip to Canada.

“I expected that we might come out a little flat tonight, coming back from the road trip. ... This is one of those ones where you give them a little bit of leeway,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought the second and third period, we pushed hard, we did some good stuff."

Wyatt Johnston, the 20-year-old Stars center who was one of the NHL’s top rookies last season, scored his fourth goal with his deflection in front of the net after Esa Lindell’s shot from just inside the blue line about five minutes into the third period.

Beecher, the 22-year-old center who was Boston’s first-round pick in the 2019 NHL draft and has played in every game, got a hard ricochet off the board behind the net. He skated around and into the right circle for a wrister past Jake Oettinger with 9:39 left in the first period.

Lohrei made it 2-0 from the top the slot on a pass from Danton Heinen with 5:51 left in the first. The 22-year-old defenseman, a second-round pick in 2020, had an assist in his NHL debut Thursday and was playing only his third game.

“Pretty cool to watch that one to get in,” said Lohrei, crediting Heinen's pass and traffic in front of the net. “That all made it easy on me. Just had to hit the net."

The last Bruins rookies to get their first goals in the same game were Jake DeBrusk and Charlie McAvoy against Nashville in a season opener Oct. 5, 2017.

McAvoy was still out of the Bruins lineup Monday, serving the third of his four-game suspension from the NHL for an illegal check to the head of Florida’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson on Oct. 30.

Oettinger had 26 saves for the Stars, who played with 11 forwards and seven defensemen with forwards Radek Faksa and Matt Duchene both out with upper body injuries.

UP NEXT

Bruins: Host the New York Islanders on Thursday, one of only three home games for Boston in their next nine.

Stars: Back on the road for their next three games, starting at Columbus on Thursday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL