Three forwards netted their first goals as Bruins in the win.
The Boston Bruins closed out their home opener with a 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens despite their Original Six rival rallying in the third to close the scoring gap on Thursday at the TD Garden.
There were a lot of goals so let’s get right to them!
Here are the game’s highlights:
First period:
The Bruins’ defense got the ball rolling early in the period only to have a power-play goal called back… Hampus Lindholm had let a blast rip from the point through traffic, but Montreal challenged Morgan Geekie for goaltender interference. Refs ruled it no goal.
The Habs then got their chance on the man advantage later in the period. After back and forth play and a shorthanded chance by McAvoy and Elias Lindholm, the Habs came right back down the other end and with 10 seconds left on the power play, Brendan Gallagher redirected a shot past Jeremy Swayman. 1-0 Canadiens.
But the B’s had got back a power-play opportunity and capitalized on it. Five seconds in, Charlie McAvoy evened the game with a wrist shot past Cayden Primeau’s stick. 1-1 game.
But moments later, Montreal regained the lead as Cole Caufield settled a loose puck on the goal line and tapped one past Swayman. 2-1 Canadiens.
In about the same time span it took Montreal to score, the Bruins evened the game with as Nikita Zadorov fed a pass to Mark Kastelic in the high slot and he let a wrist shot fly past Primeau. 2-2 game.
Then Elias Lindholm had his own first as a Bruin, finding the back of the net as he deflected Zadorov’s shot past Primeau. 3 -2 Bruins.
Second period:
David Pastrnak extended the B’s lead with a one-timer in the slot off a feed from Pavel Zacha from behind the net. 4-2 Bruins.
Cole Koepke followed the play and crashed the net to register his first goal as a Bruinputting in a second effort from Johnny Beecher’s attempt. 5-2 Bruins.
Third period:
Josh Anderson tipped in a long shot from Kaiden Guhle to make it a 5-3 game midway through the final frame as the Canadiens found some life.
Gallagher netted his second of the night to bring the Canadiens within one score as Gallagher beat Swayman with a snap shot from the inside hash marks. 5-4 game.
Kastelic threw a pass out from which deflected off a defenseman and over Primeau’s right shoulder for his second goal of the night. Final score: 6-4 Bruins.
Game notes
- How often is it that three new faces in the Bruins’ lineup register their first goal in the Black and Gold on the same night? Kastelic, Koepke and Elias Lindholm all had their first as a Bruin in the win.
- The Bruins definitely started stronger tonight, winning more puck battles and outshooting the Canadiens through two periods.
- The fourth line was instrumental in creating offensive zone time and going hard to the net. Kastelic’s goals were the product of driving to the net. If a Canadien wasn’t there to deflect the puck in, Beecher was there to pick up the pass intended for him out front.
- The Bruins’ defense stepped up offensively tonight and were engaged from Hampus Lindholm’s called-back goal. The defense registered points in five of the six goals and were had a hand in all three first period goals which set the tone for the rest of the game — including Zadorov’s two assists. Jim Montgomery said he liked how the defense was taking shots and had a shooting mentality.
- But on the flipside, defensively, the Bruins still need to tighten up. There were a few back door goals were sticks should have been picked up. Zadorov said postgame he would have rather the team won a 1-0 contest than the high-scoring game it turned into.
- While Montgomery was happy with the first win, he said he felt the team needed to be better with puck management, especially in the third period. He didn’t like how they gave up two goals off the faceoff and that overall they needed to be stronger checking.
- Hampus Lindholm edged out Charlie McAvoy for most TOI by a whopping two seconds at 22:58 TOI while Riley Tufte clocked the least at 9:21.
- The Bruins will get right back at it on Saturday when they welcome the Los Angeles Kings for a 1 p.m. matinee at the TD Garden.