Bruins Beat Archrival Canadiens 3-1

By KC Downey in Bruins, Featured ⋅ January 14, 2009 at 6:40am ⋅ Post a comment

Defenseman Zdeno Chara scored a pair of power-play goals to help lift the hot Bruins to their third straight victory. The Bruins scored three straight goals after falling behind 1-0 in the second. Goaltender Tim Thomas stopped 34 shots in the B’s 3-1 victory over the rival Canadiens Tuesday night.

Andrei Kostitsyn scored the lone goal for Montreal, which had won four straight games and scored five or more goals in each of them. Goaltender Jaroslav Halak made 26 saves for Montreal in the losing effort.

Chara led the sqaud in ice time with more than 31 minutes. He finished with those two goals on five shots, and a +1 rating. Fellow-defenseman Dennis Wideman also had more than 30 minutes of ice time and finished with one assist on the evening.

The Bruins had their 11th sellout of the season as the B’s fans poured in to see the rival Habs. Also helping to fill the seats were a good number of fans from Montreal, who usually travel to see their team in rival cities. The combo made for a nice playoff atmosphere.

“It was definitely a playoff-type atmosphere,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “I’m glad we had our fans behind us. It was nice to be in Boston for this one.”

Boston is running away with the Eastern Conference, and with 68 total points, now leads by 11 points over the Capitals and 12 points over the Rangers and Canadiens. They haven’t won a playoff series since 1999, but it looks like that may change this year. We can only hope!