With images of last year’s fist-filled Dallas Stars game dancing in their heads, the Bruins exploded on the score sheet and pounded the Hurricanes into submission in a 7-2 win at TD Garden Saturday night. The B’s came out firing after a disappointing opener against the Washington Capitals, and scored three quick goals against the Hurricanes in a dominant first period.

The buzzing B’s outshot the Hurricanes by a 21-7 margin in that first period and registered more shots in one energetic period against the Canes than during an entire lackadaisical game opening night against the Alex Ovechkin traveling band.  Steve Begin, Derek Morris, Michael Ryder, Marco Sturm and Marc Savard all registered multi-point nights among 13 B’s names on the score sheet, and the victory was punctuated by a huge team-wide brawl at the end of the second period.

Last season’s work ethic finally kicked into gear one game too late, but all the telltale signs of last year’s team were evident in the effort toward power play opportunities and beating Carolina to every last loose puck.

“That’s mainly what we talked about yesterday all day and today. We talked about effort. If the effort was there a lot of things would fall into place,” said B’s coach Claude Julien. “We needed more than the 1o minutes we got the other night, and we more or less got 60 [minutes] tonight.

“For us this was an opportunity to redeem ourselves and show the fans what opening night should have been like. It should have been more like tonight.”

Milan Lucic cut open Jay Harrison’s forehead with a punishing right during the first brutal fight, and an Andrew Alberts cross-check to Marco Sturm following the ensuing face-off sparked on a team-wide scrum. As NESN’s Jack Edwards so aptly said last season during a rout of the Canadiens, the Bruins beat Carolina badly on the ice and they beat them up.

YOU’RE THE BEST AROUND AND NOTHING WILL EVER KEEP YOU DOWN: Steve Begin. The ex-Habs energy forward was single-handedly killing penalties, set up a pair of goals and amazed one and all with his hockey package of skill, skating speed and grit on the fourth line. Bruins fans are going to adore the former Montreal tough guy, and the love affair clearly started last night.

GOAT HORNS: Carolina’s blueline was pretty awful throughout Saturday night’s game without Joni Pitkanen, and there may not have been a slower pairing than Andrew Alberts and Aaron Ward.  Both were minus-2 with bad turnovers all around the ice, and Alberts touched off the hockey pig-pile with a cheap cross-check. Alberts ended his night by picking a fight with Shawn Thornton, and getting beaten badly with a flurry of rights and lefts.

Here’s the Lucic/Harrison bloodbath courtesy of youtube: