Bruins survive late Canadiens rally, hold on for 6-4 victory

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Oct 10, 2024

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — Now that was better.

The Montreal Canadiens may have represented a sizable drop-down in quality of opponent for the Bruins at TD Garden on Thursday, but the B’s game looked a lot more like the brass envisioned when it assembled this team in the offseason in a 6-4 victory in the home opener. It was not perfection — far from it — but it was a step in the right direction.

Looking to erase the taste of a very bad loss to Florida Panthers in the season opener, the B’s got contributions up and down the lineup and gave Jeremy Swayman ample support in his first game of the season to notch their first win. They got three fourth-line goals, two from Mark Kastelic.

The B’s took a 3-2 lead into the first intermission after an entertaining opening 20 minutes.

Not that it would have been difficult, but the B’s started much better than they did in Florida. They earned the first power play on the first shift and it appeared Hampus Lindholm gave them them the lead on a long shot, but Montreal coach Martin St. Louis challenged that Justin Brazeau interfered with goalie Cayden Primeau. The challenge was upheld and the goal came off the board.

It was the Habs who took the first lead of the game on their own power play. Just seconds after Brad Marchand leveled Alex Newhook, Brendan Gallagher tipped home a Joel Armia pass at 8:26.

But the B’s answer quickly answered with their own PP goal. Charlie McAvoy, more shot-happy than usual (he fired six pucks in the first), beat Primeau with a long-distance wrister.

In the middle of that goal announcement, however, the Habs regained the lead as Kaiden Guhle sifted a diagonal pass from the right point to a too-open Cole Caufield, who had enough to miss the puck at first before pulling it off the side of the net and tucking into the open net behind Swayman.

But the B’s owned the rest of the period. They would hold a 13-6 shot advantage and take the lead into dressing room on goals from two new Bruins. First, on an excellent, grinding fourth-line shift that was imagined in the summer, Kastelic came off the boards and beat Primeau with a high wrister at 13:24.

Then two more new Bruins combined to give the B’s their first lead of the season when Elias Lindholm redirected a Nikita Zadorov pass through Primeau from the high slot at 18:23.

The B’s didn’t give up much to the Habs early in the second — Montreal went 15:33 without a shot, starting with 7:01 left in the first — but it felt like they were letting the Canadiens hang around.

That was until the B’s popped in a pair of goals in 55 seconds late in the second.

The first one came at 15:56 on a nice play by the first line. David Pastrnak dumped the puck in and Lindholm and Pavel Zacha converged on Arber Xhekaj to regain the puck. Zacha took it behind the net, then reversed course to leave David Savard in the dust before delivering a pass for a Pastrnak one-timer shot from slot for a 4-2 lead.

Then the B’s got another fourth-line goal. Johnny Beecher used his great burst to get to the net and tried to squeeze it home on the short side. Primeau made the initial stop but couldn’t control the rebound. Cole Koepke followed up the play and jammed it through Primeau’s pads for a 5-2 lead going into the third.

But the Habs did not give up. Josh Anderson scored on a tip of a Kaiden Guhle shot at 9:05 in the third period and, with 4:17 left in regulation, Gallagher scored his second of the game when he was all alone from the bottom of the circle.

But 17 seconds later, Kastelic scored his second of the game when he banked the puck off Primeau.