Some people have begun to question if the rivalry between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens still exists in the heavily skill-based game that hockey is evolving into. While most people would say no, or that the rivalry just isn’t the same, there’s no denying that whenever these two teams meet the energy is electric.
Last night the Bruins hosted the Canadiens at the TD Garden for the two teams final of four meeting this regular season. Brad Marchand opened the scoring for the Bruins with a beautiful shot that went top corner over the shoulder of Canadiens’ goalie Carey Price.
Shortly after Marchand’s goal, Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller dropped the gloves with Canadiens defenseman-turned-forward Nicolas Deslaurier, reigniting the energy between the two teams and within the Garden.
At the end of the first Brendan Gallagher tied the game for the Canadiens, tipping in a shot from Jeff Petry as the first period came to a close.
The second period was filled with heavy, physical play from both teams, with players being slammed into the boards and thrown about left and right. Both teams got caught up in the physicality and started to focus more on hits instead of smart puck play.
The next goal came from the short-handed Habs as Paul Byron outskated Patrice Bergeron to put a backhander on Rask and give the Canadiens the lead, 2-1.
The Bruins had plenty of beautiful chances early in the third but were unable to capitalize as time slowly slipped away from the team. As the hope of a win slowly started to fade the Bruins got on the power play after Michael Chaput received a delay of game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass. Krejci fired a hard shot through traffic, managing the put the puck just over the blocker of Price to tie the game at 2-2 and lead to overtime.
Overtime was a quick but painful 15 seconds for the Bruins. The Habs won the opening faceoff and left the Bruins unable to regain control of the puck. Max Domi fired a shot that bounced of Rask and into the air where Jeff Petry batted the puck out of the air and into the net.
The Bruins will look to get a win on the road against the Philadelphia Flyers before heading home to host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
