BOSTON — The Bruins came into Thursday's clash with Montreal with the top-ranked penalty kill in the NHL.
The Canadiens, who entered the night with a power play ranked 30th out of 30 teams in the league, hardly seemed like a threat to do much damage against the Bruins with the man-advantage.
But Montreal struck twice on the power play, matching its output from the previous seven games combined, and those two goals were the difference as the Habs took a 3-1 decision at the Garden.
"For sure, special teams was the difference in the hockey game," said Montreal coach Jacques Martin. "Our two power-play goals and our penalty killing did an outstanding job."
The Canadiens had just four power-play goals in 51 chances coming into the game, including one in 17 chances in the previous five games. But they struck on their first opportunity in this one, as P.K. Subban scored on a blast from the point at 5:19 of the first after Tyler Seguin was whistled for tripping.
Montreal then broke a 1-1 tie 29 seconds into the third period when former Boston College star Brian Gionta finished a nice passing play from Michael Cammalleri and Tomas Plekanec with Zdeno Chara in the box for interference.
"I would give them credit for doing a good job," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. "That's not to say that our PK should be excluded from that, but it wasn't a good night overall and sometimes [it's] fatigue and maybe the decisions weren't the best at times and it cost us a few goals."
The Bruins were guilty of some mental miscues to lead to a couple penalties, but there were also some very dubious calls. Shawn Thornton got back-to-back penalties in the second when he was singled out for an extra roughing minor in a scrum in front of the Montreal net even though he was taking shots from a pair of Canadiens, neither of whom received a penalty.
After he got out of the box, he was sent right back in for interference, even though Canadiens defenseman Roman Hamrlik skated backwards into Thornton to cause the collision. After the game, one Bruin stated that even Hamrlik told him he couldn't believe that call was made.
The calls on Thornton appeared to have as much to do with his reputation as a tough guy as they did with what actually transpired on the ice, an all too familiar theme for physical players often singled out for extra attention from the officials. Seguin doesn't fit into that category, but his tripping call was questionable as well, as Travis Moen certainly appeared to embellish the minimal contact.
At least Maxim Lapierre did get called for diving early in the second trying to draw an interference call on Mark Stuart, but Boston's power play was having issues of its own. The Bruins finished the night 0 for 4 on the man-advantage.
There was plenty of debatable calls by referees Dean Morton and Tim Peel, but Julien wouldn't risk a phone call from the league by questioning any of the decisions.
"I can't really comment on a lot of things," said Julien. "We'll take the blame for the loss because it was more than that."
The Bruins did kill off both of Thornton's penalties, as well as a roughing minor to Adam McQuaid late in the first period. But Montreal capitalized on its first and last power plays to become the first team to score two goals on the man-advantage in one game against the Bruins this season.
"Our PK, it's been real great for us," said Bruins forward Milan Lucic. "You want it to be perfect every night, but it's inevitable it's not going to be perfect every night. I know we're going to do whatever thing we can to touch up and I look forward to having a strong special teams going into Saturday night."
