MONTREAL -- It's difficult to put too much weight on a regular-season game a week into December, but considering the stage the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens will be on the next time they play each other, this was a big one.
The Bruins and Canadiens played each other for the final time before the 2016 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1, when the historic rivals will face each other in front of nearly 70,000 fans at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The Bruins came to Bell Centre having lost their past seven regular-season games against the Canadiens, and Wednesday was their last chance to enter the Winter Classic with somewhat of a clean slate.
Down 1-0 and being outshot 26-14 by the Canadiens through two periods, it wasn't looking like the Bruins would be able to pull it off.
But then captain Zdeno Chara whacked a puck out of the air during a penalty kill to spring Loui Eriksson for a breakaway goal, Landon Ferraro scored the go-ahead goal 42 seconds later, and the streak was history.