Recap: Late Bergeron goal lifts Bruins to win over Canadiens

Jan 25, 2023 - 3:51 AM

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It lacked the sizzle of a traditional Bruins-Canadiens rivalry game and probably took a little longer than anticipated to tilt the Bruins’ way, but ultimately, it was a win.

Patrice Bergeron’s goal with 2:55 left in the third period broke a 2-2 tie, then David Pastrnak added an empty-netter to give the B’s a 4-2 win.

Things were scoreless for the first 30 minutes of action, until Kirby Dach got things started for the Canadiens, burying a PPG on a beautiful cross-ice pass from Mike Hoffman. 1-0 Canadiens.

Not to be outdone, Taylor Hall answered back with a PPG of his own five minutes later, making it a 1-1 game.

Midway through the third period, David Krejci tipped a shot from another Czech David past Sam Montembeault, making it 2-1 Bruins.

Montreal didn’t stay down for long, and it was Kirby Dach again — this time collecting a loose puck and putting it in to make it a 2-2 game just under two minutes after Krejci’s goal.

With just under three minutes to play in regulation, Bergeron corralled a JUICY REBOUND and beat Montembeault from the slot, making it 3-2 Bruins.

Pastrnak added an ENG with 49 seconds left, his 37th goal of the year, to ice it — 4-2 Bruins final.

Game notes

• For a while, this game had some big “Cam Talbot against the Bruins” vibes for Sam Montembeault. The Bruins were caving Montreal in for large portions of the early part of the game (Natural Stat Trick credited the B’s for four high-danger chances 5v5 in the first period alone), but Montreal’s goalie hung in there.
• Nice to see Taylor Hall back in the goal column. This will sound dumb, but I didn’t think his play in recent weeks was as bad as a 16-game goal drought would indicate. While he wasn't putting the puck in the net, he’d been making his presence known in other areas.
• It was a four-point night for Pastrnak (1G, 3A), raising his season total to 69 points.
• Brad Marchand skated 19:41 TOI tonight, a number that you normally see from second-pairing defensemen. AJ Greer and Joona Koppanen were at the opposite end of the spectrum, skating just 7:36 and 8:02 TOI, respectively.
• After Linus Ullmark set a goalie-win mark in the B’s last game, the team apparently set another tonight, becoming the fastest-ever NHL team to reach the 80-point mark.

The B’s continue their Atlantic Division run with a trip to Tampa on Thursday night.