Canadiens 4, Bruins 2
MONTREAL -- Center David Desharnais scored late in the third period to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-2 come-from-behind win over the Boston Bruins on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Goaltender Mike Condon stopped 29 shots for Montreal (13-2-1) while Jonas Gustavsson made 29 saves for the Bruins (6-6-1).
Center Tomas Plekanec and left wingers Lars Eller and Max Pacioretty also connected for the Canadiens.
Left winger Loui Eriksson and center Frank Vatrano scored for Boston.
Boston's league-leading power play got the scoring started early. After back-and-forth passing between centers Ryan Spooner and David Krejci along the right boards, Spooner dished off to center Patrice Bergeron at the top of the circle, whose shot hit Eriksson and deflected in at 1:50 of the first period.
It was just the fourth time the Canadiens have allowed the first goal this season and the first opposition power-play goal at the Bell Centre.
Plekanec tied it at 1:09 of the second period on the power play. Defenseman P.K. Subban won a battle along the boards and fed right winger Brendan Gallagher at the goal line to Gustavsson's right. Gallagher found Plekanec uncovered inside the right circle, at the hash marks, and the center fired it far side on Gustavsson for his seventh of the season.
Vatrano put the Bruins ahead at 8:51. Vatrano, after taking a pass from defenseman Colin Miller outside the circle along the right wall, skated to the top of the zone just inside the blue line before wiring home his first NHL goal, taking advantage of an Eriksson screen in front of Condon.
The Bruins nearly made it a two-goal lead late in the period when a Spooner wrist shot trickled through Condon. The Canadiens' netminder thought he had control of the puck but a roar from the crowd let him know otherwise and the rookie turned around and dove to get his glove on it before it crossed the line.
Plekanec thought he had his second of the night early in the third when he found the back of the net from the right circle with a scramble between multiple Bruins and Canadiens in front of and on the other side of the crease. The on-ice call of a goal was reversed after a challenge by Boston coach Claude Julien.
Eller's fifth of the season evened things up at 8:58. Center Alex Galchenyuk came out from the goal line to the corner before tossing a shot on Gustavsson. The goalie thought he had it but Eller was there to poke it through.
Desharnais gave the Canadiens their first lead of the game on the power play at 18:52. Defenseman Andrei Markov fed Galchenyuk at the top of the circle. Gustavsson saved the shot but Desharnais was at the side of the net for the rebound.
Pacioretty sealed it with an empty-net tally.
NOTES: Bruins C Frank Vatrano, a native of East Longmeadow, Mass., who was called up from Providence of the American Hockey League on Friday, made his NHL debut against the Canadiens. ... Montreal kept the same line-up, scratching RW Alexander Semin and D Jarred Tinordi, while G Carey Price missed his fourth straight game while recovering from a lower body injury. ... Boston scratched RW Tyler Randell and D Joe Morrow. ... Canadiens C Tomas Plekanec suited up for his 777th career NHL game, tying him with Guy Lapointe for 23rd on the team's all-time list of games played. ... With the longtime rivals participating in this year's Winter Classic, both teams wore special stocking caps for the warm-up period. ... The game was the 731st regular season meeting between the clubs, the most between any teams in NHL history.