BOSTON — The Montreal Canadiens are already off to a strong start. It doesn’t hurt that they have star goaltender Carey Price getting some early- season rust off now, too.
Price stopped 19 shots in his second start of the season, and Brendan Gallagher and Phillip Danault each scored a second-period goal Saturday night to lift the Canadiens to a 4-2 win over the Boston Bruins.
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WHO: Wild at Bruins
WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday
TV: NESN
Price missed most of last season because of a right knee injury and started this year out of the lineup because of the flu. He won his season debut Thursday, stopping 27 shots against Arizona.
“It’s always good to get minutes in, good quality minutes,” Price said. “The guys are playing really well defensively in front of me, and everybody’s rolling right now. It’s fun to watch.”
Torrey Mitchell and Paul Byron also scored for Montreal, which has not lost in regulation through its first five games (4-0-1). Byron’s goal was short-handed.
Dominic Moore and Ryan Spooner scored for Boston, which is winless in its last nine games at home against its longtime rivals. Backup goalie Anton Khudobin made 25 saves.
“I don’t like to lose,” Khudobin said after falling to 0-2 this season. “It’s the worst feeling, I would say. I understand maybe you’re not going to win all games, but I’m trying and it’s just a bad feeling when you’re losing.”
Gallagher had a simple explanation why the Canadiens feel so comfortable in Boston lately.
“It’s a fun place to play,” he said. “I think everyone gets excited when the fans are on you. It makes for a good atmosphere.”
Bruins starting goalie Tuukka Rask was out because of an undisclosed injury. Coach Claude Julien said before the game: “We’re going to shut him off and give him another day’s rest, at least.”
Boston pulled Khudobin with just under three minutes to play and had a power play for the final two minutes. The Canadiens had two players in the box for the last 56 seconds.
The Canadiens jumped ahead midway into the second period on Gallagher’s goal and made it 2-0 on Danault’s goal late in the period.
Moore’s score came on Boston’s first shot of the third period when he worked a give-and-go with Tim Schaller before slipping a wrister past Price from the slot, but Byron scored on a breakaway just less than two minutes later.
With the Bruins still on the power play, Spooner scored moments later to cut the deficit to 3-2, but Mitchell answered with an unassisted goal, stealing the puck near the faceoff circle and slapping it one-handed into the net.
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