Pastrnak, Bruins rally past slumping Canadiens

BOSTON --The Boston Bruins scored three goals in the third period to extend their winning streak to seven games with a 3-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at TD Garden on Sunday.

David Pastrnak scored his NHL-leading 25th goal, and Tuukka Rask made 28 saves for the Bruins (19-3-5), who are 8-0-3 in their past 11 games and are the only team in the League without a regulation home loss (11-0-4).
It was the third straight game Boston rallied after trailing in the third period.
WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Bruins highlights]
"You know they're a really good team, to be honest," Pastrnak said. "Really fast and played really well today. But we stuck with it. Obviously, we knew we were going to get one. We didn't know we were going to get three in the third, but we knew … we were going to get the bounce at the net."
Carey Price made 31 saves for the Canadiens (11-10-6), who are 0-5-3 in their past eight games but had allowed 24 goals in their previous four games.
"I can't stand here and tell our fans I'm happy," Montreal coach Claude Julien said. "They want wins. We're not winning. They don't care about these kind of positive things from our team. But I do know that we played defensively, we didn't give them much. I could see frustration on the other side there creeping in as the game was going on because we weren't giving them much."
Joel Armia gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 1:58 of the first period. He stole the puck from Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara behind the net, skated out front, and scored on a backhand that redirected in off the skate of Charlie McAvoy.

Pastrnak tied it 1-1 at 6:16 of the third period. Anders Bjork chipped the puck out of Boston's zone to Pastrnak, who skated to the right circle and scored on a slap shot that went in off the left post. He is the first player to score at least 25 goals in the first 27 games of a season since Jaromir Jagr (27) in 1996-97.
"To be honest, I think I saw with one eye that the defenseman I think can't catch me," Pastrnak said. "So I was shooting it from the time I sort of saw the puck bouncing to the middle, and it was my only play in my head."
David Backes, who was playing his first game since Nov. 2 (13 games) because of an upper-body injury, scored his first goal of the season on a one-timer on the power play to give Boston a 2-1 lead at 10:29.
"I think you could see it on my face, that was elation," Backes said. "And first game back to have a go-ahead goal with 10 minutes left, get that opportunity on the power play, (I) appreciate all those opportunities."

Jake DeBrusk extended the lead to 3-1 at 13:27 on a give-and-go with Charlie Coyle.
"It's hard to try and find any confidence with what's going on right now," Canadiens captain Shea Weber said. "But we've got to find a way somehow, one way or another. We're the only ones that can dig ourselves out of this and we've got to find a way."

They said it

"We're pros here. You know, you don't sit in there and feel sorry for yourself … because we all know you can never get out of that. We need to just buckle down here and keep pushing. And like I said, maybe next time the break goes our way. And if it goes our way then we win a hockey game."-- Canadiens coach Claude Julien
"Obviously, I always feel David can score a lot of goals. Twenty-five by December 1, I mean, I wouldn't have predicted that no, but I'm not in the prediction business. … Maybe he could have 30 you know, if you think about it, some of the times he's been robbed. I don't think he's had a lot of freebies, let's put it that way." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy on David Pastrnak

Need to know

Armia has scored in three straight games. … Pastrnak is the first Bruins player to be the first in the NHL to score 25 goals in a season since Phil Esposito did so in 30 games in 1974-75. … Boston's 15-game home point streak is its longest to start a season since the 1973-74 season, when it started 19-0 with two ties. … Rask is 6-0-0 with a 1.83 goals-against average and .943 save percentage in his past six starts.

What's next

Canadiens: Host the New York Islanders on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Bruins:Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NESN, FS-CR, NHL.TV)