NHL Game Summary - Boston at Montreal
Montreal, QC (SportsNetwork.com) - Brendan Gallagher and Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau both scored twice as the Montreal Canadiens opened their home schedule with a 6-4 victory over the Boston Bruins at Bell Centre.
Max Pacioretty finished with a goal and two assists and Jiri Sekac scored his first career goal for Montreal, which eliminated the rival Bruins from the last season's playoffs in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
David Desharnais and Alexei Emelin supplied two assists apiece and Carey Price turned aside 25-of-29 shots in the win.
Zdeno Chara, Loui Eriksson, Carl Soderberg and Simon Gagne all lit the lamp for Boston, which had Tuukka Rask allow five goals on 23 shots.
"There were bad bounces, bad breaks in our zone that can't happen," said Rask. "It's early in the season so we will address those moves in our zone."
Sekac tied the game at 3-3 with less than two minutes to play in the middle stanza after he gathered the rebound of Rene Bourque's shot at the right side of the net and wristed it past a downed Rask.
Montreal went ahead with 24 seconds remaining in the frame. Parenteau received a pass from Tomas Plekanec at the right boards and snapped a shot from the high slot over the left shoulder of Rask to cap a frantic second period.
Pacioretty took a slap pass from Emelin and wristed a shot from the slot off Gallagher and into the back of the net 7:17 into the third.
"One shot just hit me, but playing with these guys, it's just easy," Gallagher said.
The Bruins, however, made it a one-goal game with 5:49 remaining. Price failed to hold onto Milan Lucic's shot from the slot. Gagne crashed the net, swatting at the loose puck in the crease with his stick, but the puck went off his skate and into the net.
Parenteau's backhander into the empty net with 20 seconds to play sealed the win.
The Bruins opened the scoring on the power play 9:03 into the first. Chara set a screen in front of Price and tipped in David Krejci's blast from the point for the early lead.
Montreal evened the score 2 1/2 minutes later. Desharnais barreled into the Boston zone after Dennis Seidenberg went off for holding the stick. Desharnais lost his edge at the right circle, but still managed to fling a shot on goal. Pacioretty followed up the play and deflected the puck off his skate into the net.
After Lars Eller had a goal waved off, Gallagher gave the Canadiens the lead moments later. Desharnais deflected Pacioretty's shot from the right boards and Gallagher deposited the loose puck in the crease into the back of the net at 7:43 of the second.
Less than a minute later, Chris Kelly had his shot from the left circle blocked, but the puck bounced to Soderberg, whose wrister from the slot beat Price for a 2-2 score.
Kelly sent a cross-ice pass to Torey Krug at the left circle. Krug weaved past a defender and found the stick of Eriksson, who tipped the puck past Price for a 3-2 Boston lead 11:31 into the second.