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 Held to a single goal for the third time in their past five games --
and two or fewer for the fourth time in that stretch, the Canadiens
fell 4-1 to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
It was Montreal's fifth straight loss, the second streak of its kind
for the team in just over month.
That, combined with the New Jersey Devils' win, dropped the
Canadiens out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern
Conference.
"The only way we're going to get out of this is by being positive,
working hard, and trying to get different results through that
process," Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said. "Obviously, yeah,
we're frustrated. We want to be better, we want to win games. We
just have to work hard every day and get out of this."
Right winger David Pastrnak recorded a goal and an assist to lift
the Bruins (24-16-5), who have now won three straight for the first
time since mid-December.
"It was about winning the hockey game," Boston coach Claude Julien
said of his team potentially looking for payback after their Winter
Classic loss. "They were a point behind us. If we didn't want to
slide down and wanted to try and move up, we had to win this game.
That was the most important thing."
Goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped 38 shots for the Bruins while Mike
Condon made 20 saves for Montreal (23-20-4).
Centers Max Talbot and Patrice Bergeron and left winger Brad
Marchand also scored for Boston. Defenseman Mark Barberio connected
for the Canadiens.
The Canadiens had the early chances, with a couple of opportunities
on four shots before the Bruins registered their first shot on
Condon four and a half minutes in.
But it was the visitors that struck first on a gaffe by Montreal
defenseman Andrei Markov in the first period. Condon denied Talbot's
five-hole attempt on a mini-breakaway. Markov picked up the puck
after Condon lifted his left pad and went to pass it to an oncoming
teammate, but it went right onto Talbot's stick and the veteran
forward made no mistake with a shot from the right circle at 13:08.
Barberio brought the Bell Centre to life with his first of the
season at 8:48 of the second. Center David Desharnais lobbed a pass
from the corner to defenseman P.K. Subban in the high slot. Subban
wasted little time in dishing off to Barberio in the right circle to
tie the game, 1-1.
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The Bruins took advantage of another defensive miscue to take the
lead again at 16:49. Blue-liner Alexei Emelin collided with Condon
to the right of the net and the Canadiens goaltender tried to
recover to get over to the other side to an uncovered Bergeron, but
the center brought Pastrnak's feed out from behind the net and
slipped it past a diving Condon.
Pastrnak made it 3-1 at 12:14 of the third period. Desharnais
collided with Condon as Pastrnak went around the net before the
winger easily slid it past Condon on the right side of the crease.
"It felt good," the second-year winger said. "I played after missing
a while and it felt nice to be back. I was focusing on being good in
the defensive zone and do the small things in the game."
Marchand capped off the scoring with a short-handed tally into an
empty net.
"It's extremely disappointing," right winger Dale Weise said. "You
come in every night and you try to reset and be positive, and when
you continue to lose games, it's just disappointing every night.
There's nothing you can say at this point."
Montreal finished the game down two players. Defenseman Nathan
Beaulieu did not return after sustaining a lower-body injury in the
first period while left winger Paul Byron didn't return after
suffering a lower-body injury in the second.
NOTES: The Canadiens made one change to its lineup, inserting RW
Devante Smith-Pelly after sitting three games as a healthy scratch,
in place of LW Jacob De La Rose. ... Montreal also scratched D
Victor Bartley and D Greg Pateryn. ... Bruins C David Krejci
traveled with the team to Montreal but missed his 10th straight game
with an upper-body injury suffered back on Dec. 27. ... RW David
Pastrnak returned to Boston's lineup after missing the last three
games with an upper-body injury. The Bruins scratched C Landon
Ferraro (upper-body injury, day-to-day), RW Tyler Randell and D
Colin Miller. ... Two-and-a-half weeks after their Winter Classic
meeting, the Canadiens and Bruins wore their uniforms from the
outdoor game on Tuesday night. ... The game wrapped up the five-game
season series between the two long-time rivals.
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