Montreal 8 - Boston 2
January 22, 2008
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The absolute dominance of the Montreal Canadiens over the Boston Bruins continued tonight at the Bell Centre as the Habs delivered an 8-2 stomping of their division rivals, extending their overall winning streak against Boston to nine games with a 6-0-0 record against them this season.
The first period opened with a nifty scrum goal by Tom Kostopolous only 14 seconds in and things just got worse for the Bruins from there. Michael Ryder made it 2-0 a few minutes later but Boston looked to keep things close with a goal from Marco Sturm to make it 2-1. Andrei Kostitsyn put the Habs up 3-1 and Maxim Lapierre put a wrist shot into the top corner over Boston starter Alex Auld with 3 seconds left in the first period to put Montreal up 4-1.
Auld was replaced by NHL goals-against-average leader Tim Thomas in the second period but the Habs’ onslaught continued. Bryan Smolinski gave the Habs a 5-1 lead 5:45 into the period and Mike Komisarak put a beautiful snapshot past Thomas less than two minutes later to extend the lead to 6-1 going into the third period.
The Bruins added some pressure coming into the third but Christobal Huet stood strong in his net, turning away several prime opportunities and looking as sharp as ever. Alex Kovalev put a slap shot off of the leg of a Boston defenseman on the powerplay to make it 7-1 before Boston was able to put a powerplay goal of their own home to cut the lead to 7-2. Andrei Kostitsyn took a beautiful pass from brother Sergei with 2:16 remaining to put the Canadiens up 8-2, and that’s where it ended.
GAME NOTES: Lots of notes tonight! 13 different Habs had a point. Andrei Kostitsyn had three points (2G, 1A). Sergei Kostitsyn had his first NHL fight and added 2 assists. Christobal Huet stopped 29 shots; Boston actually outshot Montreal 31-24. Alex Auld let in 4 goals on only 7 shots in the first period.
With Ottawa’s 5-3 loss to Florida tonight the Habs are within 6 points of them. New Jersey’s win in Philly puts the Canadiens at 5th place in the Eastern Conference. Next game is in New Jersey on Thursday.
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[…] rob wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe absolute dominance of the Montreal Canadiens over the Boston Bruins continued tonight at the Bell Centre as the Habs delivered an 8-2 stomping of their division rivals, extending their overall winning streak against Boston to nine … […]