By: Liz Rizzo | Follow me on Twitter @pastagrl88
There’s never love lost between these two teams and tonight the Boston Bruins really had to earn their 4-2 win. Despite having a severely depleted team due to injuries, the Montreal Canadiens brought their A-game and tested the Bruins tonight at the Bell Centre.
GAME RECAP
A fast-paced start to the game saw much action up and down the ice with both goalies being tested early on in the match-up. Brad Marchand would have the first and only penalty of the first period when he was nabbed for hooking against Nick Suzuki.
Despite the man advantage and some close scoring chances, Boston was able to kill off Montreal’s penalty. Gameplay continued to be marked by stellar saves by both Sam Montembeault and the Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman. The first period will close out with no goals from either team.
Boston’s Taylor Hall drew the team’s first power play of the night when he was tripped by Montreal’s Josh Anderson. The Bruins were unable to capitalize on the man advantage and both David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha quickly had close scoring opportunities that were stonewalled by Montembeault.
Montreal would get back on the power play with Derek Forbert picking up an interference and unsportsmanlike conduct (served by Craig Smith). The Canadiens’ Michale Pezzetta also sat on the bench for unsportsmanlike conduct against Forbort.
With the Bruins down a player, Montreal’s Kirby Dach (who is playing his 200th NHL career game) got on the scoreboard with his ninth goal of the season, giving the team a 1-0 lead during the power play. Mike Hoffman would sit in the penalty box on a slashing infraction against Brandon Carlo, giving the B’s another power play chance.
Taylor Hall tied the game at one-a-piece scoring off a feed from Pastrnak during the power play, breaking a 16-game personal scoring drought.
With 42 seconds left in the second period, the Bruins, unfortunately, would get back on the kill when Charlie McAvoy sat out on a hi-sticking penalty against Rafael Harvey-Pinard.
Montreal opened the final period on the power play that was short-lived when Mike Matheson was called for cross-checking against Brad Marchand. Fans saw four-on-four action for 54 seconds before Boston finished their power play.
After much traffic in front of the Canadiens’ net, David Krejci gave the B’s their first lead of the night when he tipped the puck in after the initial shot by David Pastrnak.
Montreal tied the game at 2-2 when Kirby Dach scored his second goal of the night after poking a loose puck past Swayman. With a little over three minutes left in the period, Patrice Bergeron scored the game-winning goal, giving the B’s a 3-2 lead. Bergeron would rip one in past Montembeault, scoring off a rebound from an initial shot by Pastrnak after winning the draw during the face-off.
With an empty Montreal net, Pastrnak sealed the deal making it 4-2.
FINAL SCORE: BOS-4, MON-2
TOTAL SHOTS ON GOAL: BOS-29, MON-22
The Boston Bruins are now 38-5-4 and are the fastest team in NHL history to reach 80 points in 47 games. Previously both the Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers held the record at 49 games. Pastrnak had four points tonight including a goal while David Krejci had two points. Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves.
NEXT GAME: Boston Bruins versus Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, January 26th with puck drop at 7:00 pm.
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