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Bruins come back in third period to beat Canadiens 02.06.13 at 10:10 pm ET
By DJ Bean

David Krejci

The Bruins got back on top of the Eastern Conference and gained some much-needed breathing room in the Northeast Division with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the Canadiens Wednesday night.

With the B’s trailing 1-0 after 40 minutes of play, Claude Julien switched Nathan Horton and Tyler Seguin on the top two lines and saw immediate results. David Krejci‘s line produced goals from Seguin and Krejci in their first two shifts of the third period, giving the B’s a lead from which they wouldn’t look back.

The Habs took a 1-0 lead in the second period thanks to a power-play goal from P.K. Subban. The 23-year-old fired a snap shot from the point that went off Rich Peverley‘s stick and sailed past Tuukka Rask.

The win improved the B’s to 7-1-1 with a conference-best 15 points. The Canadiens fell to 6-3-0 with 12 points.

The Bruins will take Thursday and Friday to prepare for an upcoming back-to-back as they’ll host the Lightning Saturday afternoon at TD Garden before traveling to Buffalo to face the Sabres.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE BRUINS

• Rask was sensational, as the Habs could have easily had three or four goals over the first two periods. Rask stoned Lars Eller on a breakaway in the first period and came up with a number of other key stops early on.

The Habs also failed to capitalize on plenty of chances. Colby Armstrong missed an easy-tip-in just over a minute into the game, while Tomas Plekanec lost the puck while trying to deke on a breakaway. The veteran center tried to go forehand-to-backhand, but instead lost the puck on what essentially looked a pass into the corner.

• Good on Julien for shaking up his top six forwards in the third period. Julien switched Horton and Seguin on the top two lines, and it paid off 14 seconds into the period when Krejci hit Seguin in front to produce the game-tying goal. Krejci gave the B’s the lead on the line’s next shift.

• Seguin found a good time to score his first real goal of the season. Entering the game, Seguin, who led the Bruins with 29 goals a season ago, had only scored one empty-net goal through eight games. He was also quiet in the first two periods periods, failing to register a shot on goal.

• Speaking of lines, Julien wasn’t afraid to use the “Providence” line of Ryan Spooner between Lane MacDermid and Jamie Tardif. Spooner, who was making his NHL debut, was given significant time on the power play, and Julien trusted the line out there in the third period of a one-goal game.

• Playing on Patrice Bergeron‘s line in place of the injured Brad Marchand, Gregory Campbell had a strong showing. In addition to his two shots on goal and special teams contributions (he even played on the power play), Campbell came up with a critical pass breakup when he got a stick on a pass intended for Brandon Prust down low with all sorts of open net in the second period.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE BRUINS

• Milan Lucic took a pair of penalties in the second period, one of which yielded Subban’s power-play goal. Both penalties were drawn by Andrei Markov, with Lucic high-sticking the Montreal blueliner at 8:56 and going off for an unnecessary slash in the offensive zone at 14:09.

Lucic wasn’t the only culprit of a bad offensive zone stick penalty. Chris Kelly went off in the third period for hooking Francis Bouillon in the Habs’ zone with the B’s clinging to a 2-1 lead. The Canadiens would have been able to tie the game on the power play had Max Pacioretty not fanned on a feed from Erik Cole right in front.

• The ice seemed pretty tilted in the Habs’ favor in the first period. Though the teams went into the first intermission, Montreal outshot Boston 11-4, with the Bruins not getting a shot on goal until Campbell fired a slap shot on Price with 8:35 remaining in the opening period.

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  • Titletown1

    Definitely Rask’s coming of age game. He was solid.

    By the way, how do you hook someone with one hand on your stick like they called Krecji for with 34 seconds left in the game? Ridiculous.

  • Sicko

     I almost fell out of my chair when the officials actually called that slash by Subban with a minute left. I guess the officails realized their mistake and called the joke of a hook on Krejci.

  • Bruinman86

     Was he ever.  Main reason they won indeed. The hooking call was bogus.  Home ref or something.

  • Fab4ever

    ….and Tuukka continues to excel…small sample but he’s on the right side of the tracks…he was sensational…..and hats off the Claude..this guy doesn’t get enough credit for the job he does…we were told that he’d wear out his welcome before long…well, I don’t see that…what I see is a frim hand on this team…these guys play hard…and what a masterful stroke to mix it up…and this wasn’t a change for change sake…I’m sure he thought about it and bang, he implements it and it worked…

  • Jerry Remy

    ya that was a rough call on krejci, but that was also a bad call on subban right before that.

  • Uncle Buck

    No matter what happens there will always be one constant for the games in Montreal, poor officiating, usually tilted towards the home team.  Add that to the fact that the current Montreal club has perfected diving and embellishment and you have a nice combo for the home team. That aside, always nice to go into Montreal and leave with the two points.  Nothing better that beating those Canadiens.  

  • JL5

    Rask played like the All Star he is becoming.  Claude’s line switch up pairing Seguin and Krejci was a fine move by the coach.  Always great to beat the Habs at home.

  • Anonymous

    Agree, the NHL has redefined hooking to a point of absurdity. It seems as if a checking player makes contact with his stick to the body of the puck carrier he’s called for hooking. It has become ridiculous. I remember when hooking actually looked like hooking. 

  • Geetsolboy

    Classic make up call by the ref. They were just looking for an opportunity to level the play after the Subban penalty. You can bank on that call in that circumstance against the visiting team almost every time.

  • glenn88

    Good win, but that was 90% Tukka.  Losing Marchand really unsettles the lines.   Bruins were outplayed for most of the night and the Habs looked faster and more skilled.  Still believe the Bruins will need to trade for a good 3rd line player to help solidify the 3rd line and provide needed scoring depth.  

  • Christina

    This team is on fire!!!!! So much talent and everyone is producing. Keep up the good work.

  • Anonymous

    Good thing Rask was spectacular in the first period. This game should have been about 3-0 after 20 minutes of play. I thought Bruins played progressively better as the game went along and by the end deserved the win. It was a great early season win, especially considering MTL got 0 pts for that one, no OT or anything, basically a 4 point game versus MTL in the standings. 

    I like having Seguin, Krecji, Lucic on a line and having Horton, Bergeron, Marchand on the other scoring line. This means each line has a scorer (Seguin, Marchand) a playmaker at center (Krecji and Bergeron) and a power forward (Lucic, Horton). Seems to be the best fit. This should also be the two PP lines. Just let them keep it simple and keep their lines together, so they can use the natural line chemistry to get the ball rolling on the PP. 

    Now that we have four solid defenseman, all who can take solid shots and not kill us on the back end of the PP, can we stop putting forwards on defense on the PP? Why, in all that is holy, was Tyler Seguin on the point last night and not playing forward on the PP? 

    Honestly, keep the PP simple, let everyone stay in the role they are comfortable with, put the best players on the ice, and let them use their skills to their advantage. Enough with fourth line players on the PP and forwards playing defense. 

  • Bruinman86

    Didn’t surprise me that much given the history there. Still shouldn’t happen, just the same. But a win is a win, and I’ll take it. Especially against that insane fanbase in their own building.

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