Whatever excitement and momentum the Bruins gained in their come-from-behind win in St. Louis on Tuesday was a distant memory by the end of the second period in Dallas on Thursday.
Boston came unglued in the middle frame and finished the game on the short-ended of a Texas-sized drubbing against the Stars, 7-2, at American Airlines Arena.
It was the fourth time they've given up five or more goals this season. Dallas swept the two-game season series, outscoring Boston, 12-4.
The Bruins will limp home to host the Blues at 1 p.m. at TD Garden on Saturday.
After, the Bruins fell behind 1-0, 69 seconds into the game, Dallas was awarded a penalty shot when Mason Lohrei obstructed Evgenii Dadonov from behind on a break-in. The Stars forward beat Swayman to make it 2-0 with 13:24 left in the first.
After coming back from two goals down in St. Louis, the Bruins got halfway toward repeating that late in the first when Charlie Coyle scored with 2:12 left.
But Dallas scored three unanswered goals in the second period to put the game out of reach.
The Stars added two more goals around a David Pastrnak tally to complete the rout.
Jeremy Swayman made 31 saves for the Bruins.
The Bruins weren't bad despite trailing after the first -- The Bruins didn't play badly in the first period despite trailing 2-1. The difference was the penalty shot on a borderline call as the teams had otherwise been mostly even. Boston appeared to have momentum from Coyle's goal late in the period.
The Bruins were bad in the second period -- If they did get momentum from Coyle's goal, it didn't carry over. Dallas dominated the middle 20, outshooting the Bruins 15-6 and pulling away with three goals.
The Bruins dodged a bullet -- With Andrew Peeke and Hampus Lindholm already out with injuries, Boston looked like they'd lost a third pillar on the blue line when Brandon Carlo went to the dressing room with an apparent head injury in the first after being hit from behind.
But he returned for the second period and played 17:17 in the game.
Nikita Zadorov earned nearly as many penalty minutes as he had playing time -- Zadorov came into the game with a team-high 29 penalty minutes. He added to that total by almost 60 percent with 17 minutes of infractions on Thursday. After fighting Jamie Benn in the first period, he was assessed a slashing call and a misconduct in the third.
Jordan Oesterle was solid in his debut -- On a tough night for the Bruins, newly-called up Jordan Oesterle wasn't the problem. The 32-year-old journeyman defenseman was summoned from Providence when Lindholm when down. He was paired with Parker Wotherspoon and played 24 shifts over 16:02.