Marco Sturm's faith in the kids wavered at an odd time

Twice Tuesday night, the Bruins' kids gave them the lead on the road in Dallas. Those kids were not given the chance to win the game. They watched from the bench as the Stars ultimately won 3-2 in overtime to snap Boston's five-game winning streak.

First things first: The Bruins taking seven of a possible eight points from this four-game Western road trip is a massive success. Full stop. They should feel very good about where they're at right now.

But, it was curious to see who Marco Sturm used, and who he didn't, late in regulation Tuesday. In a 2-2 game, young forwards James Hagens and Matt Poitras did not see the ice for the final five minutes. Young defensemen Frederic Brunet and Mason Lohrei sat for the final four.

Obviously, this isn't the first time a coach has benched young players in a "close and late" situation, and it won't be the last. Coaches tend to ride with veterans they trust in such scenarios.

In this case, though, those kids have been some of the Bruins' best players – on the season in general, and on Tuesday night in particular. In fact, they provided all of Boston's offense in Dallas.

Brunet set up Poitras for the first goal of the game, just a couple seconds after Lohrei made a great play to keep the puck in the offensive zone. It was Poitras's fourth goal in the last six games. After Dallas tied the game, Hagens got the lead back by going to the net and finishing off a nice pass from Casey Mittelstadt. It was Hagens' seventh point in 10 games.

Hagens and Poitras are now tied with fellow youngster Fraser Minten for the team lead in 5-on-5 points with six – two more than the likes of David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie and JJ Peterka. Lohrei has the most 5-on-5 points (4) of any Bruins defenseman.

So, why weren't they used late in a tie game that was being played 5-on-5? Sturm wasn't asked that directly after the game, but he did allude to young players making mistakes in one of his postgame answers.

"It's a good thing. Again, they still need to learn," Sturm said when asked about Hagens and Poitras getting more involved this season. "You could see it when you play a team like Dallas today, a lot of veterans, and it's kind of like a little bit more of a playoff atmosphere. You could tell they made a little bit more mistakes than some other games. But it's healthy, though. It's going to help them moving forward."

None of those mistakes were especially glaring, though. And they didn't show up in the analytical tracking, as evidenced by the impact card below, where Hagens and Poitras graded out as two of the Bruins' best forwards Tuesday night. Other, veteran forwards certainly made mistakes, too.

On the final shifts that they did get, the kids seemed to do their jobs. Poitras helped win a battle to get a puck out of the defensive zone. Hagens blocked a shot and also helped muscle a puck out to center ice.

If the Bruins were still trying to protect a one-goal lead, Sturm's bench-shortening would have been a lot more understandable. Or even if they were under siege and just trying to hang on for dear life, it would have made some sense.

That wasn't really the case, though. While the Stars did score in the third to tie the game, they only had two shots on goal in the period. The game was still there for the taking, but instead of trying to win it in regulation with the only Bruins who had scored in the game, Sturm got conservative and played for overtime.

And if that was the mission at that point, then it did work, in fairness. The Bruins did make sure they at least got one point. Unfortunately, they were a disaster once overtime started. Pastrnak, Peterka and Charlie McAvoy all committed turnovers that gave the Stars scoring chances, and then Pavel Zacha took a penalty that set up Mikko Rantanen's power-play game-winner (and Rantanen's third goal of the game).

Again, this road trip was a great one for the Bruins. That's what's most important. But the ending does leave a little bit of a sour taste because a sixth straight win was within reach, and because Sturm's belief in the kids seemingly wavered for the first time. After a lot of pushing the right buttons from Sturm this season, this felt like a misstep.