Bruins beat Canadiens in Julien’s return to Boston
BOSTON — David Pastrnak and Ryan Spooner each scored an early goal, Tuukka Rask stopped 21 shots and the Bruins beat Montreal 4-1 Wednesday night in Canadiens coach Claude Julien’s return to Boston.
The surging Bruins have earned at least a point in 14 straight games (10-0-4), their longest stretch since going 15-0-1 in March 2014.
Brad Marchand added a power-play goal in the third period, David Krejci had an empty-netter and Patrice Bergeron had two assists for Boston, which posted its second win over the Canadiens in five days. The teams meet again in Montreal on Saturday night.
Jakub Jerabek scored his first NHL goal for Montreal, and Carey Price made 28 saves.
Julien, who coached Boston’s Stanley Cupwinning team in 2011, was fired last Feb. 7 in his 10th season. He was replaced by assistant and current Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, who opted for more up-tempo, chargeinto-the-zone play from his defensemen as opposed to Julien’s mostly defensiveminded style.
Rask extended his career-best point streak to 15 games (13-0-2), including a 4-3 shootout win at Montreal last Saturday.
Trailing 1-0, Boston tied it 6:50 into the first when Pastrnak took a pass from Bergeron at the bottom of the left circle and slipped a wrister behind Price.
Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray is taking a leave of absence from the team following the death of his father. The Penguins announced that James Murray, Matt’s father, died on Tuesday in Ontario, Canada. Matt Murray, who backstopped Pittsburgh to consecutive Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and 2017, will be away from the team indefinitely. Murray took a brief trip home last week to tend to what the team called a “personal matter” at the time.