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      Bruins at Canadiens | Recap

      MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens continued to push for their first Stanley Cup Playoff berth since 2021 with their third straight win, 4-1 against the Boston Bruins at Bell Centre on Thursday.

      Brendan Gallagher and Nick Suzuki each had a goal and an assist, and Sam Montembeault made 18 saves for Montreal (36-30-9), which took a two-point lead on the New York Rangers for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

      It was the Canadiens’ first regulation win against the Bruins since Nov. 5, 2019; Boston had gone 15-0-1 against Montreal since then.

      Elias Lindholm scored, and Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves for Boston (30-37-9), which lost its 10th straight (0-9-1).

      “The other teams are just hungrier than ours,” Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov said. “They want to win more, that’s the bottom line. We’re just not hard on the puck. We’re easy to play against.”

      The Bruins tied the eighth-longest losing streak in their history; they most recently lost 10 in a row from Jan. 16 to Feb. 10, 2010.

      “It’s going to take 60 minutes of consistent hockey right now,” Boston interim coach Joe Sacco said. “And I think we have moments where we play well, but not long enough, during the course of a game. We have to be able to sustain more a 60-minute effort and I think that’s what it’s going to take.

      “And we have to just understand that we have to pull out of this together. It’s not about one person or two persons trying to pull us out of it, we have to do it together as a team, but more focused on the process, how we play, and when you do that usually the score will take care of that.”

      Christian Dvorak scored 40 seconds into the second period to give Montreal a 1-0 lead. He put a wrist shot past Swayman’s glove from the slot to cap a flurry of action in the goalmouth.

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          Sacco speaks with media in Montreal after 4-1 loss to Canadiens

          Cole Caufield made it 2-0 at 14:42 when he scored on a 2-on-1 with Suzuki. Caufield pushed his NHL career high to 35 goals with a shot into an open left side off a feed from Suzuki, who drew the puck back to get around Henri Jokiharju in the right face-off circle before passing to his left.

          Gallagher extended it to 3-0 at 3:00 of the third period. He was alone in the slot to one-time a shot past Swayman when the puck popped out front after Jake Evans forced a turnover in the left corner.

          Lindholm cut it to 3-1 at 13:19 when he scored on a rebound at the left post.

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              BOS@MTL: Lindholm spots the puck in the crease and flicks it in

              Suzuki scored into an empty net with 1:57 left for the 4-1 final.

              Suzuki, who has 81 points (26 goals, 55 assists) in 75 games, is the first Canadiens player with 80 points in a season since Alex Kovalev had 84 points (35 goals, 49 assists) in 2007-08.

              Bruins forward Morgan Geekie had an assist, giving him seven points (three goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak.

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                  Swayman speaks with media in Montreal after 4-1 loss to Canadien