BOSTON — Carey Price made 34 saves to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-1 victory and a season sweep over the Boston Bruins on Sunday night.
Dale Weise and Max Pacioretty each had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens, who completed their first regular-season sweep of Boston since taking all eight meetings in 2007-08.
Additional Photos
Price has won seven of eight and allowed 11 goals in that span. He extended his shutout streak against Boston to 159:25 until David Pastrnak scored with 4:31 remaining.
Pastrnak cut Montreal’s lead to 2-1 when he batted the puck toward the net and Price appeared to have made the stop, but his glove was behind the goal line and after replay, the goal was allowed.
Weise gave Montreal a 1-0 lead 38 seconds into the second period when he converted a cross-ice pass from Pacioretty and beat Tuukka Rask.
Rask made 31 saves, but dropped to 3-13-3 against Montreal for his career.
Pacioretty scored on a breakaway 56 seconds into the third period when Weise fed him the puck after Zdeno Chara collided with Dougie Hamilton for a 2-0 lead.
Boston has one win in its last 11 games against the Canadiens, including six straight home losses.
Andrei Markov added an empty-net goal with 31 seconds remaining to cap the scoring for Montreal.
The Bruins had no power plays for the third time this season and are six points ahead of Florida for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
NOTES: Bruins backup goalie Malcolm Subban missed an opportunity to make his NHL debut against his brother, Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban. . Boston suffered its second regulation loss at home in its last 13 games. … David Krejci has one goal in his last 15 games, while Chara has one goal since Oct. 21. for the Bruins … Weise has three goals in his last two games. … Montreal outscored Boston 16-6 in the season series.
ROB GRONKOWSKI and several of his New England Patriots teammates were honored by the Bruins before their win against the New York Islanders on Saturday night in a pregame ceremony in Boston.
After teammate Rob Ninkovich dropped the ceremonial puck between Bruins captain Zdeno Chara and Islanders captain John Tavares, Gronkowski pulled another puck out of his pants pocket and emphatically spiked it — as he does with the football when he scores a touchdown – to the delight of the sellout crowd at TD Garden.
He slammed the puck with such force, it bounced over the protective glass and into the stands as several fans reached up to grab the souvenir.
“Yeah, that was pretty awesome,” Bruins center Chris Kelly said. “You could tell the fans were into it. We kind of had a heads up to what he was going to do.”
But Gronkowski wasn’t done celebrating. He later spiked a promotional pizza box when he was shown on the Jumbotron after he was selected as fan of the game, a 2-1 victory for the Bruins.
Gronkowski and other Patriots such as defensive end Chandler Jones, offensive lineman Nate Solder and defensive end Zach Moore, who held the Lombardi Trophy, wore Bruins jerseys with their Patriots numbers on them.
They lined up near center ice and the crowd roared, honoring the champions.
“The Patriots had me really pumped up,” defenseman Torey Krug said.
Bruins Coach Claude Julien agreed.
“Guys were excited about seeing the (Patriots) players out there and shaking their hands and everything else,” Julien said, “and they came out strong.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story