Rask, Bruins shut out Canadiens
BOSTON -- Tuukka Rask made 25 saves for the first home regular-season win of his career over Montreal, and the Bruins beat the Canadiens at TD Garden for the first time in five years, cruising to a 4-0 victory Sunday.
Bruce Cassidy earned his third consecutive win as Boston's interim coach.
Rask, who came in 0-9-3 at home against the rival Canadiens, pitched his sixth shutout of the season and the 36th of his career as his team beat Montreal in Boston for the first time since Jan. 12, 2012. The Bruins had gone 0-8-1 at home against Montreal since, including a loss in the Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium.
Rookie winger Peter Cehlarik, playing in only his second NHL game, handed out two assists, and defensemen Adam McQuaid and Zdeno Chara (short-handed), David Krejci and Frank Vatrano scored goals for the Bruins. Krejci added an assist.
Boston (29-23-6) has scored 14 goals in the three games since Cassidy was elevated to replace the fired Claude Julien last Tuesday.
Montreal goalie Carey Price stopped 32 shots.
The Canadiens (31-19-8) fell to 1-5-1 in their past seven games while getting shut out for the third time in five games.
Krejci's goal came on the power play, giving Boston 20 power-play goals in the past 18 games.
Cassidy hoped to get his defensemen more involved in the offense, and the Bruins got two goals from the defense on Saturday in a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks and another two on Sunday.
Carey Price made 32 saves in the Montreal goal but fell to 4-9-1 in his last 14 starts. Since starting the season 10-0, he is just 14-14-5 since. He is 24-9-4 lifetime in the regular season against the Bruins.
The Bruins completed a sweep of a three-game homestand, moved to 15-13-0 at home, and climbed within six points of first-place Montreal in the Atlantic Division. Boston is tied for second with Ottawa, though the Senators have five games in hand on both teams.
Bruins left wingers Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak both notched assists. Marchand had 13 points in eight games, 27 in 18, while Pastrnak has 10 during a five-game points streak and 15 in the past nine games.
The loss kept the Canadiens from sweeping the four-game season series with the Bruins, who went 1-2-1 against Montreal.
Cehlarik picked up his first assist with a nifty pass to McQuaid as the Bruins scored 8:57 into the game. He got his second assist on the Krejci goal that made it 3-0 at 15:05 of the second period -- Boston's 11th power-play goal in the past eight games (at least one in all eight). David Backes hit Krejci for the goal, bringing cries of "Car-ey" down from the crowd.
Chara's goal came just as a four-on-four was coming to an end. The captain took a pass from Ryan Spooner and made a nifty move down the slot before beating Price with a wrist shot at 5:08 of the second period to boost the lead to 2-0.
NOTES: RW Brendan Gallagher returned to the Montreal lineup after missing 18 games with a broken hand. The Habs went 7-9-2 while he was out. ... LW Max Pacioretty came in with seven goals in the last seven games. The rest of the Montreal forwards had five total during that span. ... Tim Thomas was in goal for the Bruins the last time Boston defeated the Canadiens at TD Garden. ... Sunday would have marked Claude Julien's 1000th regular-season game as an NHL coach had he not been fired by Boston last week at 997. ... Both teams entered their bye weeks after the game. Montreal next hosts the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 18, and the Bruins head west to San Jose on Feb. 19. ... Sunday night was Chinese Cultural Night at TD Garden.