Tuukka Rask was due a day off after playing in 11 consecutive games for the Boston Bruins. So on Tuesday night, Niklas Svedberg made his first start since January 8th where he shutout the New Jersey Devils.

Things did not go according to plan and the Stars came into TD Garden and beat the Black and Gold 5-3.

The 25 year-old net minder was recalled after being sent down to Providence on a conditioning loan. Svedberg went 3-1-0 with a .911 save percentage and a 2.76 goals against average while playing for Bruce Cassidy’s club.

The Dallas Stars were not impressed, running Svedberg after the first period where he allowed three goals on 10 shots in the opening 20 minutes, but it wasn’t totally his fault. The players in front of him didn’t have the commitment that was needed to win the hockey game.

Rask’s night off was short-lived. It turned into him playing the final 40 minutes stopping 21 of 22 shots thrown on him by the Stars. The only blemish was Trevor Daley’s short-handed goal where he skated through the entire Bruins defense. It was Daley’s 14th tally of the season and that proved to be the game-winner.

Rask knows nights like this happen for goaltenders and he came to the defense of his backup Svedberg without hesitation.

“Yeah, I mean they didn’t have a lot of shots and the shots they had were really good scoring chances, ” Rask said. “So, it’s one of those tough games when you don’t get that feel for the puck and it seems like every shot is a bad shot and it goes in. It’s just nothing you can do. So it’s a tough bounce but he’ll bounce back.”

Svedberg was hard on himself after the game simply stating he didn’t do his job.

“What matters is that I played like crap and we lost the game,” Svedberg said postgame. “So, I think I should take the blame for this loss and I think I played a poor game. Obviously Tuukka (Rask) has played a lot of games lately so he needed a night off and this was a time when I needed to step up, despite not playing that much here at least. This was an important game for our team and for me to step up and I failed. So it’s pretty simple.

The B’s actually tied the game at 3-3 after trailing 3-1, but their power-play was in shambles tonight allowing two short-handed goals. The first time that feat happened in 53 games this season. The winning goal for the Stars happened while the Black and Gold were on the man advantage which is unacceptable.

Svedberg didn’t make any excuses even though he hasn’t played in a game with the big club in over a month.

“No, I mean, I played four games in Providence so that shouldn’t be an excuse,” Svedberg said. “So, just a bad game.”

Head coach Claude Julien wasn’t too thrilled with his team’s effort in front of Svedberg which resulted in their third loss in their last four games.

“I think hopefully we’ll put him in a position next time with a little bit more support,” Julien said. “You know, when we played well we had good layers. We didn’t give up much. Tonight wasn’t. It certainly wasn’t the case. We gave up a lot.”

It was a tough start for Svedberg in his first game back with the Black and Gold, but Julien and his teammates know what he is capable of. For Rask, it wasn’t too big of a deal due to their next game being on Friday. Rask will almost certainly be between the pipes when the B’s travel to Vancouver to embark on a five game road trip where points will be at a premium.