(Boston) Trent Frederic scored two goals and the Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 on Saturday night in Boston.
Charlie McAvoy, Pavel Zacha and James van Riemsdyk scored the other goals for the Bruins.
Juraj Slafkovsky scored for the Canadian in the second period, in addition to adding an assist on Johnathan Kovacevic’s net late in the game.
Jeremy Swayman, who had a 6-0-1 career record against the Canadian before the game, made 20 saves.
Veteran Jake Allen stopped 39 shots in this fourth straight loss for the Habs.
The Bruins took advantage of 1:47 of time on the five-on-three power play, shortly before the halfway point of the first period. McAvoy went with a powerful shot that beat Allen into the top right corner. Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak had an assist on McAvoy’s goal.
The Bruins generated a lot of traffic around Allen’s net to start the game, not being afraid to take shots from all over the offensive zone, with one player, sometimes two, positioned in the semi-circle to harm the guard.
All that pressure finally paid off. With 40 seconds left in the first period, Brandon Carlo shot from the point, and Frederic deflected the puck into the net. Charlie Coyle was also an accomplice in the Bruins’ second goal.
The Canadian experienced a sequence of more than 30 seconds in the Bruins zone early in the second period. Alex Newhook had the best chance to score during this sequence, taking advantage of a superb pass from captain Nick Suzuki to get overlooked in front of Swayman. The goalkeeper, however, made the save on a low shot.
Zacha made the Canadian pay for his lack of opportunism in the following seconds. Lindholm passed the disc to the attacker, who fired without delay. The puck changed trajectory and beat Allen.
Slafkovsky gave the Habs hope at 13:03 of the second period, scoring his second goal of the campaign. Positioned to the goalie’s right, near the faceoff circle, Slafkovsky took a quick shot and the puck found its way into the net, behind Swayman.
Frederic gave his team a three-goal priority at 15:30 of play. While the Bruins had just taken a penalty, a quick restart allowed Frederic to use his speed to create space and rush forward. Canadian zone. His shot beat Allen between the pads.
Forward van Riemsdyk scored the Bruins’ second power play goal of the game, corralling the loose puck in front of the net. Marchand and Pastrnak once again collected an assist on the Bruins net on the power play.
With 9:17 left in the third period, the Bruins had already reached the 40-shot mark.
Kovacevic cut the score to 5-2 with 15:29 left in the final period. The defender recovered a loose puck near the post, while Swayman was not in a good position to make the save.
Before the start of the game, the Bruins paid tribute to their Stanley Cup winning teams of 1970 and 1972. Unsurprisingly, Bobby Orr was the one who received the most cheers.
For the occasion, the Bruins wore their old uniform from those years, while the Habs were in red.