Montreal has Boston's number

[Mikado]

Bruins can't keep up with Montreal offence

BOSTON - When Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien was asked why his team had trouble with the Montreal Canadiens he talked about taking too many penalties and turning the puck over in their own zone.

And that was the story again Thursday night as the Canadiens beat the Bruins 5-2 at the TDBanknorth Garden. The victory gave the Canadiens a 5-0 record against the Bruins this season and extended their winning streak over two seasons to eight games.

The difference in this game was discipline. The Canadiens had it and the Bruins didn't.

"We knew they were going to come out hard after a tough practice and a lot of meetings yesterday," said Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau. "We knew it was going to be a physical game but we tried to stay under control and they took some penalties."

The Canadiens enjoyed six chances with the man advantage and the NHL's best power play scored on two of them. And while the Bruins crept back to within a goal at 3-2 on Milan Lucic's marker at 2:01 of the third period, their chances of a comeback ended on a turnover in their own end.

"It was a classic wraparound and they didn't control the puck," said Mathieu Dandenault, who combined with Josh Gorges to knock Mark Stuart off the puck. Dandenault scored to give the Canadiens a 4-2 lead and added another goal at 18:49.

"I thought we battled hard to come back until that fourth goal but we put ourselves in a difficult position with some bad penalties," said Julien. "There's no other way to say it; we took some bad penalties. We wanted to come out with a lot of energy but we hurt ourselves. I looked at the tape and those penalties were legit."

Tomas Plekanec gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead when he scored a power-play goal at 10:36 of the opening period. At the time, Marco Sturm was in the box for elbowing Plekanec, who resisted the temptation to retaliate after the hit. Plekanec was actually attempting to pass to Andrei Markov on the other side of the crease but the puck hit Zdeno Chara and caromed past Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas.

Maxim Lapierre made it 2-0 when he crashed the net and put the puck in the net after Christopher Higgins' shot slipped through Thomas's pads at 11:30.

Alex Kovalev added the second power goal at 13:18 of the second period. It was his 19th - one more than he scored all last season - and his 11th on the power play.

Then, it started getting interesting.

Aaron Ward, who returned after missing eight games with a broken bone in his foot, scored on a goal mouth scramble after a puck caromed off the back boards at 14:41 of the second period and Lucic closed the gap when he beat Huet through the pads on a shot from the faceoff circle.

It was Huet's only miscue as he stopped 23 of 25 shots. The goalie improved his record to 6-0-3 since his last loss in regulation time on Nov. 24.

"He's been playing solid and that's why we're going to keep riding him," said Carbonneau.

The Bruins went 0-for-3 on their power plays but missed a chance to tie the score when Chara fired wide on the net during a power play midway through the third period.

Thursday night's game was the first in a four-game road trip for the Canadiens, who improved 14-6-3 on the road. And the Canadiens have now gone seven games without a regulation loss, posting a 5-0-2 record.

The Canadiens headed to New York after the game and will face the Rangers Saturday night. They'll play the Islanders on Tuesday and wrap up the trip Thursday in Atlanta.

Montreal Gazette