Habs Dominate 3rd Period And Beat The Bruins Handedly

Jacob Fowler had a very strong game, making big saves in his first game back at the TD Garden since turning pro last April. Fowler previously played for Boston College, where his home ice was the TD Garden for 2 seasons. In his return to Boston, Fowler made 26 saves on 28 shots and was particularly good early in the game when the Habs needed him to bail them out. His best save came early in the first period, when he robbed David Pastrnak of a pass that came from Morgan Geekie on a 2-on-1. There were a few other times he came up clutch, and by doing so, it positioned the Canadiens in good shape to take over the game in the 3rd period. While the Habs gave Fowler a lot of run support on Tuesday, he deserves a lot of credit for the win nonetheless.

In Phillip Danault’s re-debut with the Habs, he struggled in the faceoff dot, winning 5 of his 15 draws. Despite his struggles, he gave the Canadiens a good calming presence in defensive situations such as the penalty kill and defensive zone starts. He also had 1 shot on goal and 2 hits in 15:29 of ice time. As he gets more accustomed to his new team, he should start having better performances.

Danault was actually out for the opening faceoff, but the game opened up immediately with a fight between Josh Anderson and Tanner Jeannot. It was a good fight between two big forwards who got the crowd into the Canadiens vs. Bruins rivalry to start the game. The bout between Jeannot and Anderson lasted around a minute before Anderson lost his footing.

The fighting didn’t start there; at 8:28 in the first period, a bout between Arber Xhekaj and Nikita Zadorov broke out off another faceoff. The two big, tough defensemen threw good blows at each, before they wrestled to the ice.

It took a few minutes after the Xhekaj-Zadorov fight before the Habs opened the scoring with Sammy Blais’ first goal with the Canadiens. His goal came after he jumped on the rebound of a blocked Lane Hutson shot, where he took the puck at the side of the net before bouncing it off Jeremy Swayman and into the net.

However, just 1:17 later, the Bruins would get on the board and tie the game up. The goal occurred after a weak puck clear attempt by Mike Matheson, which would end up on Mason Lohrei’s stick, who would find Marat Khusnutdinov alone in the slot through traffic, where he would one-time the puck past Fowler. While Matheson did make a bad giveaway that led to the goal, it was also a perfect pass that resulted in the Bruins being able to tie the game.

The Bruins were on the power play with just 18 seconds left in the first period when forward Alex Steeves beat Fowler with a wrist shot to the top corner after the Canadiens netminder dropped to his knees a little too early. This was a goal that Fowler would surely want back, and one that he can learn to not drop to his knees so quickly when a shot is coming. Although if it weren’t for Fowler, the score could have been worse, as he managed to keep the game tied for the majority of the period before that last shot.

In the 2nd period, the Canadiens would answer at just 1:58 in the frame, thanks to Ivan Demidov jumping on a bobbled Bruins pass in the neutral zone. Once Demidov got the puck, he got through everyone for a breakaway, where he beat Swayman with a deke before putting it in to tie the game. This goal was likely the Russian rookie’s nicest goal of the season thus far.

Neither team was able to capitalize on any other chances for almost the entire 2nd period. That was until Pastrnak crashed the net and pushed Slafkovsky into his own goalie before Elias Lindholm put the puck in the net. However, due to the collision caused by Pastrnak, the goal was waived off right away, and it was confirmed with video review that the call on the ice stood. Following the disallowed goal being called, there was a scrum in front of the net that led to Zadorov and Slafkovsky starting some rough and tough with one another. Both players would be called for roughing, and the period ended at 4-on-4. This wasn’t the last time these two players would go after each other.

In the 3rd period, both teams started to go back and forth for the first few minutes until the Habs finally took control of the game once they got the lead. Bolduc would intercept a pass in the neutral zone after Zadorov’s stick broke, where he would then feed Hutson to take it into the zone. Hutson would find Suzuki coming down the slot for a prime scoring chance, where he attempted to get around Swayman but would be stopped in his tracks before Bolduc was there to put the rebound in and give the Habs a 3-2 lead. Following the goal, the Bruins attempted a coach’s challenge for goaltender interference. On review, it was deemed a good goal, as it was Swayman who initiated contact with Suzuki on the play in question following his opportunity.

After the coach’s challenge failed, the Habs were awarded a power play. On the ensuing power play, following a stoppage, Jeannot would cross-check Bolduc, who seemed to get under the Bruins’ penalty killers’ skin. This would lead to the Habs getting a 5-on-3. During the 5-on-3, Cole Caufield would go to the net and deke out Swayman before putting the puck past him to give the Canadiens a 4-2 lead. This goal would snap Caufield’s 6-game goalless streak.

After that goal, the Canadiens were still on the power play and skated into the zone before the Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm would get called for tripping and send the Habs back to a 5-on-3 PP for another 1:26. The Habs would once again score as Suzuki would get a goal this time after he batted a rebound out of mid-air from a Slafkovsky shot to give the Canadiens an insurance goal and put them up 5-2. The two goals scored on the power play were the first two markers scored at 5-on-3 by the Habs this season.

A couple of minutes later, it would be Slafkovsky’s turn to get a goal when he took a cross-ice pass from Hutson, where he fired a one-timer from the right side of the net to put the game out of reach with the Habs’ 6th goal of the night. The Canadiens would go on to score all 4 of their 3rd-period goals in a matter of 5:18. It may have started with a nice rebound goal by Bolduc, but the Bruins coach’s challenge led to a lot of undisciplined hockey that allowed the Habs to run away with the game.

With just 1:08 in the game, following a Slafkovsky holding call, Zadorov went after him again, and the two nearly dropped the gloves, but the refs would get in the way and send them both off the ice with 10-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalties each. In all, both teams combined for 68 penalty minutes in what was a battle that showed what this rivalry once was. It will be interesting to see if the bad blood continues when the Habs visit the Bruins again on January 24th. One thing is for sure, the rivalry between these teams finally looks alive again.

This game ended up going extremely well for the Canadiens; on the negative side, Alexandre Texier left the game late in the first period with an upper-body injury. This will be something to be monitored by the Canadiens after they get back from the holiday break. It could be that he will only need a few days off, and he’ll be ready to go in Tampa Bay on Sunday for the Canadiens’ next game.

The Canadiens are now sitting at 20-12-5 and in 2nd place in the Atlantic Division as the NHL’s holiday break is underway until December 27th.

With that being said, how have you enjoyed the first part of the Habs season?