For the second time in less than a week, the Bruins danced with the Devils. And for the second time in less than a week, the Bruins boarded their flight out of Newark with two more points banked away.

In a follow-up to last Friday’s win, the Bruins once again attacked the Devils with a balanced scoring act that featured three different scorers (and from three different lines), while Linus Ullmark once again made the difference.

The win pushed the Bruins to 8-1-0 against teams currently inside the playoff structure in the Eastern Conference, and pushed the Bruins to 7-0-0 in 2022-23 in their first game after a loss.

Here are the 98.5 The Sports Hub (dot com) 3 Stars from another grind-it-out win in NJ…

No. 3 Star: Patrice Bergeron

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – DECEMBER 28: Patrice Bergeron #37 of the Boston Bruins waits for the third period faceoff against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on December 28, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

On the board with a deflection goal that held as the game-winning goal with just 4:09 remaining in the third period, Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron knew better than to leave this one to a potential shootout.

It was the headliner of a night that featured more Bergeron excellence, really, as the 37-year-old also chipped in with two hits, four shots on goal, and wins in 10 of his 16 battles at the dot (a 62.5 faceoff percentage) in 15:52 of time on ice. The faceoff success really helped set the tone in a night that saw the Bruins as a team finish with a 62 faceoff percentage, and Bergeron was especially strong in his own end, with wins in all seven of his defensive-zone faceoffs.

The game-winning goal was also the 77th of Bergeron’s illustrious Bruins career, which ties him with Phil Esposito for second on the franchise’s all-time game-winning goals leaderboard. Only the legendary Johnny Bucyk has more, with 88 game-winning goals over the course of his 1,436-game career with the Bruins.

And with 1,011 career points, Bergeron is now just a single point away from tying Esposito for the third-most points in franchise history. Only Bucyk (1,339 points) and Ray Bourque (1,506) have more points in a B’s sweater than Esposito.

No. 2 Star: Hampus Lindholm

Dec 28, 2022; Newark, New Jersey, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm (27) plays the puck away from New Jersey Devils left wing Miles Wood (44) during the second period at Prudential Center. (Ed Mulholland/USA TODAY Sports)

A solid day of work at the office for Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm.

On the ice for a defense-leading 22:24 of time on ice, Lindholm came through with primary assists on both of the Black and Gold’s goals with Vitek Vanecek in the New Jersey net, and added three blocks en route to the victory. Lindholm’s helpers were straight-up pretty, too, with a no-look dish to Trent Frederic for Boston’s game-opening strike, and a perfectly deflectable shot towards Vanecek for Bergeron’s game-winning goal.

Lindholm is up to 23 assists on the year, which is just four off from tying his single-season career-high (27 assists in 2014-15), and Lindholm is now just seven points away from matching his career-high in points (34, in 2014-15).

No. 1 Star: Linus Ullmark

Dec 23, 2022; Newark, New Jersey, USA; New Jersey Devils center Nico Hischier (13) moves the puck behind the goal while Boston Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark (35) tends the net during the second period. (Thomas Salus/USA TODAY Sports)

I mean, what more can be said about Linus Ullmark and his start to the 2022-23 season?

It’s almost New Year’s Day and Ullmark is still atop the NHL in wins (20), save percentage (.938), and goals against average (1.90). He’s very much paced for what would be the goalie version of a Triple Crown victory. That’s insane. And though I completely admit and acknowledge that we’ve already said this a bunch of times this season, Wednesday’s effort may have been his best gem yet, with a ridiculous 30-of-31 performance over the Devils.

Beginning his night with a glove save on a Miles Wood breakaway bid, that stop set the tone for Ullmark in what finished as a 16-for-16 first-period effort in net, and it took a multi-layered breakdown for the Devils to beat him in this contest.

Overall, the 6-foot-5 finished with saves on all but one of the 12 high-danger shots he faced in this game, according to Natural Stat Trick, and all while they also had Ullmark with an expected goals against average north of 4.00.

Just an absurd night.

It’s obvious that Ullmark has been the first half MVP for the Bruins.

But this start got me wondering how it compared to recent Vezina-winning seasons from Boston netminders, namely Tim Thomas in 2008-09 and 2010-11 and Tuukka Rask in 2013-14.

Of that group of four, ’22-23 Ullmark is the only one with 20 wins through 24 games played, and his .938 save percentage is second only to ’10-11 Thomas and his .949 save percentage at the 24-game mark. (Thomas would go on to set the single-season record for save percentage that season, by the way.) Ullmark is also the only one among the four to lead the league in all three categories at the 24-game mark, as ’10-11 Thomas led the league in both save percentage and goals against average, but sat in seventh in wins after 24 games.

The question is whether or not Ullmark can keep this up like those guys did en route to Vezina victories, and in the case of ’10-11 Thomas, a Stanley Cup championship.