Since Fraser scored twice as a late lineup addition Nov. 1, he hasn't registered a point in six games.

WILMINGTON — The best moment of Matt Fraser's career came at the Bell Centre six months ago.

Called up in the middle of the playoffs, Fraser was an overnight hero, potting the overtime game in the Bruins’ 1-0 victory in Game 4 of their second-round series with the Canadiens.

Ideally, that’s what the Bruins want Fraser to do — score goals. He has 90 AHL goals under his belt. The puck explodes off the 24-year-old’s stick like no one else’s on the team.

But since Fraser scored twice as a late lineup addition Nov. 1, he hasn’t registered a point in six games. This gets Fraser, who’s desperate to impress the Bruins, anxious.

“I know when I'm not playing my best and when I can play better,” he said last month. “In those situations, I take that upon myself and I am hard on myself that way. It’s almost to a point where it hurts me, I guess, but I’ve made it this far being hard on myself and being an undrafted guy.”

Last Thursday, back at the Bell Centre for the first time since the playoffs, Fraser ventured out of his comfort zone, and, well, literally got himself hurt.

It was a 1-1 game midway through the second period and Fraser was taking just his second shift of the period when he was knocked down by Canadiens defenseman Nathan Beaulieu. Fraser jabbed at Beaulieu and challenged him to a fight. It did not go well for Fraser.

Beaulieu hit Fraser with back-to-back jabs, then dropped the hammer with a powerful right-hand smash. Fraser was woozy as he left the ice and underwent concussion testing. He was fortunate he was well enough to return and finish the game.

Fraser fought over three dozen times in the WHL and believes his willingness to drop the gloves helped get him notice by the Stars, who signed him as an undrafted free agent. He has a handful of fights as a professional, but it’s not his strong suit. The fights are an expression of his desire to show his worth.

“I’m obviously not going to be a fighter,” Fraser said Monday. “I’m not very good at it. A situation like that, we didn’t play well the night before [in Toronto], you want to show the coaches and the guys on the team that you can contribute. You want to do something to change the flow of the game. Obviously it didn’t go very well, but I mean, you got to put yourself in those positions.

“I’ve always heard the phrase, ‘Fortune favors the brave,’ and that’s something where you’ve got to go out and do something to get yourself going and get the team going.”

With missing half the second period, Fraser played just 7:54 Thursday. Two days later, he received just 9:56 of ice time in a win over the Hurricanes. Against Carolina, Fraser was supplanted in the lineup at times by both Chris Kelly and Milan Lucic as coach Claude Julien tinkered with the lineup of his struggling team. Fraser did receive power-play time when Brad Marchand was unavailable in the third period.

Fraser understands the tough spot he’s in. He's considered a goal scorer, and lately he hasn’t been scoring goals. He and Simon Gagne are the only forwards who don’t play special teams. If David Krejci and Marchand can both play Tuesday against the Blues, either Fraser or Gagne will likely be the odd man out. If Fraser remains in, it could be in a fourth-line role.

If he remains in the lineup, Fraser will continue to ride that line of trying to prove he belongs while not doing too much.

It was a lesson he learned early in the season, when Fraser played the first three games. He tried to do too much, struggled and it all fell apart. Fraser rode the bench for most of three weeks and was told that when he got back in, to focus on what he was good at.

That’s easy when the good times are flowing — like the two-goal return to the lineup against the Senators on Nov. 1 — but it’s so tempting to want to prove more when the goals have disappeared and the ice time is diminishing.

“It’s such a funny line,” Fraser said. “I think for myself, you look at the start of the year, you want to bring so much to the table and you want to score, you want to do this and this and this. It almost sets you back. As soon as you find what’s made you successful in this league, you have to play to it and you have to build off it.

“You have to establish it and then you can build off your game and bringing more to it.”