All posts by BRENDAN McGAIR

Geekie scores 100th career goal, Bruins beat Canadiens 4-3

BOSTON (AP) — Morgan Geekie scored his 100th career goal with 5:53 remaining to break a tie and give the Boston Bruins a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Geekie’s winner, his second goal of the night, came on the power play just 12 seconds after Fraser Minten fired a backhander that beat Montreal goalie Samuel Montembeault to tie the game at 3-3.

Viktor Arvidsson also scored a goal and Charlie McAvoy had three assists for Boston, which has won 10 of its last 12 and seven straight on TD Garden ice. Jeremy Swayman had 22 saves.

Cole Caufield had his second career hat trick for Montreal while Montembeault made 17 saves. Caufield now has 29 goals this season and is the first Montreal skater to have a hat trick in Boston since 1997.

Caufield’s first goal extended his point streak to five games and came at 6:36 of the opening period. His second goal while on the power play broke a 1-1 tie in the second period and featured a one-timer from just below the left circle.

Geekie’s first goal squared it at 2-2 and marked the third of four power-play goals between the teams in the second period. David Pastrnak carved out some space before delivering a pinpoint pass that Geekie hammered home from close range.

Caufield’s third goal gave the Canadiens a 3-2 lead and was a carbon copy of his second — below the circle and on point with his shot into a tight corner on the power play.

Boston was 3 for 4 on the power play while Montreal was 2 for 3 on the man advantage.

Up next

Canadiens: Host Vegas on Tuesday night.

Bruins: Travel to face the New York Rangers on Monday night.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL

Bruins strike early, hold off Golden Knights 4-3 for 9th win in 11 games.

BOSTON (AP) — Charlie McAvoy started a three-goal flurry in a 54-second span in the first period, David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists and the Boston Bruins held off the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 on Thursday night.

Boston won for the ninth time in 11 games.

Elias Lindholm and Tanner Jeannot also scored for the Bruins, who made the Golden Knights pay after a double minor for high-sticking was assessed to forward Tomas Hertl at the nine-minute mark of the opening period. Appearing in his second straight game, Joonas Korpisalo made 29 saves.

Vegas cut a 4-0 deficit in half during the opening minutes in the third period behind goals from Jack Eichel and Tomas Hertle. The Golden Knights made it three straight when Pavel Dorofeyev scored with 2:35 left with goalie Akira Schmid off for an extra skater,

Schmid remained in net after a shaky sequence that began when McAvoy blasted one from just inside the blue line for his fourth goal of the season. The goal came 10 seconds into the four-minute power play.

Boston kept charging and made it two power-play goals in 30 seconds when Lindholm scored between the circles for ninth goal of the season. Pastrnak assisted on both power-play goals.

Jeannot capped the spree off a feed from Sean Kuraly with 9:54 left.

The Bruins made it 4-0 in the second period when a nice move by Nikita Zadorov resulted in Pastrnak rifling one past Schmid for his 21st goal of the season

Up next

Golden Knights: At Toronto on Friday night.

Bruins: Host Montreal on Saturday night.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl