The visiting Montreal Canadiens jumped out to a five-goal lead inside the first two periods, and Jacob Fowler made 30 saves en route to a 5-2 win over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
Jake Evans (game-winner) and Josh Anderson each registered a goal and an assist to lead the Canadiens, who extended their point streak to 12 games (9-0-3) and moved atop the Atlantic Division standings with the victory. Kirby Dach, Cole Caufield and Phillip Danault also scored.
Casey Mittelstadt scored both goals, and Elias Lindholm had two assists for Boston, which saw its four-game overall and seven-game home win streaks snapped.
Jeremy Swayman allowed four goals on 17 shots before being replaced by Michael DiPietro, who stopped 13 of the 14 shots he faced.
Boston finished with a 32-31 shot advantage. Montreal held a 23-6 edge in blocks and earned four of the game’s five power plays.
Montreal struck just 2:34 into the first period when Dach took a feed from Arber Xhekaj, crossed the blue line and circled the offensive zone before scoring on a wraparound inside the left post.
Anderson then doubled Montreal’s lead at 8:36, whacking in a rebound after Evans deflected Mike Matheson’s shot into Swayman.
Fowler preserved Montreal’s two-goal lead midway through the first period, recovering to the net to make a pad save on Pavel Zacha. He also helped the Canadiens kill a penalty late in the period.
The Bruins dominated the early stages of the second, but after Fowler stopped Frederic Brunet’s point-blank shot, Anderson sent Evans on a breakaway, slipping the puck five-hole on Swayman to make it 3-0 at 4:24.
Caufield turned a David Pastrnak turnover at Boston’s offensive blue line into Montreal’s fourth goal at the other end at 8:14, surging ahead and ripping a shot high to Swayman’s blocker side.
With DiPietro in Boston’s net, Danault buried a one-time feed from Zachary Bolduc from the right circle to make it 5-0 at 14:15.
Just 38 seconds later, Mittelstadt put Boston on the board, taking a saucer pass from Lindholm and beating Fowler with a wrist shot from the slot.
Mittelstadt made it 5-2 just 53 seconds into the third, slotting home the rebound of a Lindholm backhander from just outside the crease.