Bruins Go 7-for-7 on Penalty Kill, Hold Off Canadiens to Stay Hot

MONTREAL -- The Boston Bruins went 7-for-7 on the penalty kill and held off the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Marat Khusnutdinov, Mason Lohrei and Viktor Arvidsson scored, and David Pastrnak had two assists for Boston (12-8-0), which has won eight of its past nine games. Jeremy Swayman made 26 saves.

“Outstanding. I thought it definitely won us the game,” Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov, who fought Montreal's Jayden Struble off the opening draw, said of the penalty kill. “Guys were laying on the ice, everything, you know -- blocking shots, putting their faces in the shooting lane and everything. So we take pride in it and it was definitely big today and got us two points.”

Jake Evans and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal (10-6-2), which had not lost consecutive games in regulation prior to its current three-game losing streak. Sam Montembeault made 20 saves.

“I think we’re trying to force some stuff and thought [Swayman] made a lot of big saves for them,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “And we had some looks that we liked, it just didn’t go in for us. That’s kind of how it’s been recently.”

The Canadiens went 0-for-7 on the power play, including two lengthy 5-on-3 opportunities in the first two periods (1:27 in the first, 1:49 in the second).

“That’s the mojo in hockey. If you don’t score 5-on-3 you don’t deserve to win,” Pastrnak said. “Our guys did an amazing job killing it, so I think at the end it’s a well-deserved two points, and obviously all the credit goes to the penalty-killing and ‘Sway’.”

The Bruins lost two players to injury during the game, including defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who left at 11:01 of the second period after he was struck in the face by a slap shot from Canadiens defenseman Noah Dobson. He was bleeding from the face and was helped off the ice.

“He’s doing OK, he’s just getting some testing done,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. “We’re going to try to get him home as soon as possible, hopefully tonight with us. But other than that, hopefully he’s going to be OK.”

Arvidsson left the game with 5:12 remaining in the third period because of a lower-body injury.

“He’s going to be out, lower body,” Sturm said. “I don’t know how long. I suppose we’re going to have to wait and see.”

Khusnutdinov put the Bruins up 1-0 at 8:38 of the first with the teams playing 4-on-4. He banked a shot in off Montembeault’s left pad from the inside edge of the right face-off circle off a cross-ice pass from Pastrnak.

“It was an elite pass from David,” Sturm said. “I would say most guys would shoot that puck and David made just a nice play.”

Evans tied it 1-1 at 12:12 with a short-handed goal. He drove in on a 2-on-1 with Mike Matheson before putting a wrist shot to the short side from the inside edge of the right circle.

The teams combined for 34 penalty minutes in the period.

Lohrei made it 2-1 for the Bruins at 2:00 of the second, scoring with a one-timer from the left point past Montembeault stick side.

Arvidsson’s power-play goal at 16:51 pushed the lead to 3-1. He took a backhand pass from Pavel Zacha and scored his 200th NHL goal on a wrist shot from the low slot.

Caufield cut it to 3-2 at 18:44 with the teams again at 4-on-4. He took a centering pass from Suzuki while driving to the net and flipped a backhand over Swayman’s right pad.

NOTES: Pastrnak has 21 points (six goals, 15 assists) during an 11-game point streak against the Canadiens. He has the longest active streak by a Bruins player against one team, and the third-longest ever by a Boston player against Montreal (Bobby Orr, 14 games, Dec. 21, 1969-Jan. 22, 1972; Herb Cain, 13 games, Feb. 7, 1943-Nov. 18, 1944...Tanner Jeannot dropped the gloves with Montreal's Arber Xhekaj at 3:52 of the first, just 2:58 after Zadorov's scrap.