Brendan Gallagher and Nick Suzuki each registered a goal and an assist as the Montreal Canadiens beat the visiting Boston Bruins 4-1 on Thursday.
Montreal (36-30-9, 81 points) never looked back after taking a 2-0 lead on goals by Christian Dvorak and Cole Caufield in the second period.
Sam Montembeault made eight of his 18 saves in the third period for the Canadiens, who are on a three-game winning streak and earned just their second victory in their past 17 games against the Bruins. Montreal now holds a two-point lead over the New York Rangers in the race for the second and final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot.
Elias Lindholm scored and Jeremy Swayman stopped 28 shots for Boston (30-37-9, 69 points), which is winless in its past 10 games (0-9-1).
Montreal had a 32-19 shots on goal advantage.
After battling through a scoreless opening period, the Canadiens dominated the middle frame to the tune of 17-2 in shots and took a 2-0 lead.
Dvorak needed just 40 seconds after the intermission to open the scoring, settling a loose puck that Boston was unable to clear and ripping it glove-side on Swayman. Gallagher had taken an initial shot that was saved, creating the frantic sequence in front.
The Boston goaltender responded with a highlight-reel save at 3:08, diving across the crease to glove Alexandre Carrier’s shot from an odd angle near the bottom of the right circle.
The Canadiens doubled their lead 14:24 into the second. Caufield slotted home the insurance marker off an assist from Suzuki, who waited out his defender and slipped a cross-ice pass to finish a two-on-one rush.
Three minutes into the third, Gallagher upped the Montreal advantage to 3-0 when he buried a wide-open snap shot from the slot after Jake Evans forced a turnover in the left corner.
Both goaltenders saved at least a partial break early in the opening period, with Montembeault’s denial of Lindholm flying down the middle at the 2:00 mark helping to change the tenor of the game.
After stopping Pavel Zacha’s point-blank shot during a Boston power play in the third, though, Montembeault had his shutout bid broken when Lindholm cleaned up a David Pastrnak rebound at the side of the net with 6:41 left in regulation.
Suzuki’s empty-net goal iced the critical Montreal win with 1:57 to go.
–Field Level Media
