The second-period scaries got the Bruins again.
The Canadiens scored a pair of goals during a dominant middle 20 minutes to pin a 4-1 loss on the Bruins at the Bell Centre in Montreal Thursday night.
The Canadiens outshot Boston, 17-2, in the second and 32-19 for the game in sending the Bruins to their 10th straight loss. The second period has been a problem all season for Boston (30-37-9), particularly during this most recent skid.
Christian Dvorak (his 11th) and Cole Caufield (his 35th) scored for Montreal (36-30-9) during the lopsided second.
“I thought the first period was fairly even … We came ready to play,” Bruins coach Joe Sacco told NESN. “The second period, we gave up that early goal, which, hey, happens. After that we mismanaged a puck on the next goal. We tried to get a change with our defense corps that had been out there a while, turned the puck over, and gave up an opportunity.
Noted Bruins killer Brendan Gallagher added an insurance goal — his 19th — early in the third to boost it to 3-0.
Elias Lindholm potted his 14th goal of the season with 6:41 to prevent Sam Montembeault from collecting his fifth shutout of the season.
Nick Suzuki closed the scoring with an empty netter. With 2 points, Suzuki has 81 on the season and became just the second Canadien in 25 years to hit the 80-point mark, joining Alex Kovalev (84 in 2007-08).
Boston entered the game with a 15-1-1 mark in its last 17 games in this ancient Original Six series.
Montembeault stopped Lindholm on breakaway in the first and was rarely challenged the rest of the way in making 18 saves.
Ironically, the Bruins best two moments of the game came in the second with Jeremy Swayman making a save-of-the-year candidate, and Cole Koepke pummeling Kaiden Guhle as retribution for Guhle’s questionable hit on Fabian Lysell.
Swayman’s spectacular save came when he crawled across the blue paint and dived to get a glove on Alexandre Carrier’s shot that appeared labeled for the open net.
Swayman was the Bruins best player for the second straight game and finished with 28 saves.
“He gave us a chance here tonight, for sure, especially in the second,” said Sacco. “The last couple of games he seems to be finding his groove a little bit better, so that’s a positive sign.”
Koepke dropped the gloves for the first time and landed an early overhand right that stunned Guhle.
The Bruins have back-to-back games over the weekend, hosting the Hurricanes Saturday night and traveling to Buffalo Sunday.
