BOSTON — The Boston Bruins put up a pretty good fight against the rival Montreal Canadiens — for one period.
Boston’s Tanner Jeannot and Montreal’s Josh Anderson dropped the gloves at the opening faceoff of Tuesday night’s game. Another first-period fight helped set the tone for the Bruins, who had beaten Montreal in eight of the previous 10 meetings.
But after falling behind 2-1, the Canadiens scored five straight goals — four of them in a five-minute span in the third period — to win 6-2 and put some distance between the two Original Six teams who are jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Bruins lost the past four games on their homestand after winning five of their previous six. They have three days off before heading to a five-game road trip.
“We all recognized it was the last game before break — against the Habs, at the Garden,”Bruins forward Alex Steeves said. “We were down early, but we bounced back. Energy was good. And then it just got away from us.”
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Five weeks after starting a fight from the opening faceoff in Montreal, the teams did it again. Jeannot, who has 53 goals and 435 penalty minutes in his career, and Anderson, who has 154 goals and 582 penalty minutes, fought for about a minute while teammates on both benches banged their sticks against the boards in approval.
The Bruins forward landed several blows before his Canadiens counterpart went to the ice, drawing a big roar and a chant of “U-S-A!” from the TD Garden crowd. Midway through the first period, it happened again, with Boston’s Nikita Zadorov and Montreal’s Arber Xhekaj dropping their gloves off a faceoff in the Bruins’ end.
“It had everything to me: Guys winning fights; guys laying their body on the [line],” Bruins forward David Pastrnak said. “It’s easy to get into the game when you have guys like this.”
In all, there were nine penalties for 30 minutes in the first, with Boston taking a 2-1 lead on Steeves’ power-play goal with 18 seconds left in the period.
“It gives the whole building energy — not just us players,” Steeves said. “Some guys on the bench just said it was the loudest we’ve heard the building. So it’s awesome. Those guys lay their bodies on the line every night. It’s up to us as a team to galvanize around that and really use that.”
But the penalties in the third were costly, with the Canadiens twice capitalizing on 5-on-3 advantages to pull away. Montreal ended the night with 45 points, four more than Boston and good for third in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins are currently out of playoff position.
“I still can’t believe that the game actually ended 2-6,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. “Even after the first period, guys came ready to play today. They were very excited.”
The Bruins had won eight of the past 10 matchups between the teams, including a 3-2 win in Montreal on Nov. 15. That game also featured several scuffles, including a fight at the opening faceoff. But the bigger problem for the Bruins had nothing to do with the fisticuffs: Star defenseman Charlie McAvoy was hit in the face by a slap shot, which could make him miss almost a month.
