MONTREAL — As good as the Boston Bruins’ power play has been, it’s been the complete opposite on the penalty kill.
Center David Desharnais connected on a late third period power-play goal following a penalty to veteran center David Krejci, lifting the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-2 win over the Bruins on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
The Bruins began the night 30th ranked in penalty killing and took three penalties. Krejci took the decisive penalty when he was whistled for high-sticking Montreal center Tomas Plekanec with 2:03 remaining.
“Stupid penalty,” Krejci said. “Two minutes left, tie game. The guys battled hard and then I do something like that. It was stupid and it cost us the game.”
Less than a minute later, Desharnais pushed the rebound of center Alex Galchenyuk’s shot past goaltender Jonas Gustavsson.
“It’s pretty obvious that we’ve lost the last two games because of that,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “The disappointing part is that it’s coming from our leaders. If you’re going to go in the right direction, it’s important that our leaders lead the way the right way. Really, really bad penalties there. The team that we played tonight seemed to find ways to win. Right now, I’d say we’re finding ways to lose.”
Goaltender Mike Condon stopped 29 shots for Montreal (13-2-1) while Gustavsson made 29 saves for the Bruins (6-6-1).
Plekanec and left wingers Lars Eller and Max Pacioretty also connected for the Canadiens.
Left winger Loui Eriksson and center Frank Vatrano scored for Boston.
Boston’s league-leading power play got the scoring started early. After back-and-forth passing between center Ryan Spooner and Krejci along the right boards, Spooner dished off to center Patrice Bergeron at the top of the circle, whose shot hit Eriksson and deflected in at 1:50 of the first period.
It was just the fourth time the Canadiens have allowed the first goal this season and the first opposition power-play goal at the Bell Centre.
It was one of three penalties Montreal was called for in the first period.
“Things happen in a game and you just have to stick with it,” Desharnais said. “We got our chances on the power play and we did the job.”
Plekanec tied it at 1:09 of the second period on the power play. Defenseman P.K. Subban won a battle along the boards and fed right winger Brendan Gallagher at the goal line to Gustavsson’s right. Gallagher found Plekanec uncovered inside the right circle, at the hash marks, and the center fired it far side on Gustavsson for his seventh of the season.
Vatrano put the Bruins ahead at 8:51. Vatrano, after taking a pass from defenseman Colin Miller outside the circle along the right wall, skated to the top of the zone just inside the blue line before wiring home his first NHL goal, taking advantage of an Eriksson screen in front of Condon.
The Bruins nearly made it a two-goal lead late in the period when a Spooner wrist shot trickled through Condon. Condon thought he had control of the puck but a roar from the crowd let him know otherwise and the rookie turned around and dove to get his glove on it before it crossed the line.
Plekanec thought he had his second of the night early in the third when he found the back of the net from the right circle with a scramble between multiple Bruins and Canadiens in front of and on the other side of the crease. The on-ice call of a goal was reversed after a challenge by Julien.
“There’s nothing you can do,” Plekanec said of the overturned call. “You see the replay and I guess it’s the right call. We said we’re going to keep going, and we did. I thought we did a good job and fought through other things, and I think we deserved it.”
Eller’s fifth of the season evened things up at 8:58. Galchenyuk came out from the goal line to the corner before tossing a shot on Gustavsson.
The goalie thought he had it but Eller was there to poke it through.
Pacioretty sealed it with an empty-net tally.