Bruins hang on to top Canadiens, increase wild card lead

MONTREAL -- The Boston Bruins increased their lead for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference and handed the Montreal Canadiens their ninth straight loss, 5-3 at Bell Centre on Sunday.

Patrice Bergeron had two goals and an assist, Erik Haula scored one of his two goals on a penalty shot, and Jeremy Swayman made 23 saves for Boston (49-25-5), which has won four of five and leads the Washington Capitals by three points; each has three games remaining. Washington lost 4-3 to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the shootout Sunday.
The Bruins, who were coming off a 3-1 win against the New York Rangers on Saturday, did not bring forward David Pastrnak and defenseman Hampus Lindholm for the game after each returned from injury Saturday. Bergeron also was offered the night off but chose to play.
"Good for 'Bergy'," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. "It's a long year when you get to be that age (36) and you've played that many games. It's Game 79 for him and back to back. We even talked to him about, 'Would you like a night off?' We've got five games in seven days, it's crazy our finish, but he wanted to play obviously in front of his parents. And good for him, I'm glad he decided to."

Jeff Petry had two assists, and Sam Montembeault made 37 saves for Montreal (20-49-11), which lost 6-4 at the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and has been eliminated from playoff contention.
It was Montreal's first home game since Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur died at the age of 70 on Friday. Hockey Hall of Famers Yvan Cournoyer, Guy Lapointe and Bob Gainey were among Lafleur's former Canadiens teammates on hand for a pregame tribute that featured an ovation lasting more than nine minutes.
After the game, the Montreal players gathered in their end of the rink and raised their sticks to salute Lafleur's banner for his retired No. 10 hanging in the rafters.
"I think a few of the guys decided to do that," Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki said. "It's a great tribute. We did everything we could tonight to get the win, we just came up short. You could tell in that third period we were doing everything possible to score and get the win for him. So just to give him a salute up in the rafters, very special."
Bergeron gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 15:03 of the first period on the rebound of Jake DeBrusk's shot from in front.
Haula made it 2-0 at 18:03 after Mike Hoffman slashed his stick on a breakaway. Haula overskated the puck at center ice on the penalty shot but did not touch it before gathering it and scoring on a low shot.
"I think we were all laughing," Swayman said. "Good for him, he faked everyone out in the building, so it worked out."

Bruins forward Brad Marchand overskated the puck but made contact with it for a shootout attempt in a 6-5 loss at the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 13, 2020.
"He was hoping that I touched it because he had done it before, so he wasn't going to be alone in that boat," Haula said.
Montembeault said he was confused when Haula drove in and scored.
"I didn't really understand what was happening," Montembeault said. "The crowd reacted, and he was skating in slowly. It was really strange, but I should have stopped him."
Josh Anderson cut it to 2-1 at 1:51 of the second period with a backhand over Swayman's right pad.
Haula pushed the lead to 3-1 with his second goal of the game at 4:04. He got behind Montreal forward Cole Caufield to redirect Tomas Nosek's pass inside the left post.

Charlie McAvoy made it 4-1 at 18:09 when he scored on a wrist shot from the point after Bergeron sent the puck back to him on a face-off.
Hoffman's power-play goal pulled Montreal to within 4-2 at 3:13 of the third period, and Suzuki cut it to 4-3 from the slot at 7:19, drawing chants of "Guy! Guy! Guy!" in a nod to Lafleur in his heyday.
Bergeron scored into an empty net with seven seconds remaining for the 5-3 final.
"Every time we play Montreal we want to make sure we put our best foot forward," Cassidy said. "And I'm sure they feel the same way, especially at home, especially on a night like tonight. So we had the upper hand early, and no quit in their game, give them credit, they battled back right to the last 30 seconds it took us to put them away."

NOTES:Bruins forward Taylor Hall was in pain but remained in the game after he was checked along the boards by Canadiens forward Laurent Dauphin in the first period. "He seemed to be OK," Cassidy said. "… Hopefully he just got winded and it was one of those situations where he didn't know where he was for a second or couldn't get the air into his system to get off the ice." … Canadiens goalie Carey Price did not dress Sunday after making 20 saves Saturday. He is day to day and will be reevaluated Monday, coach Martin St. Louis said. Cayden Primeau was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League and backed up Montembeault.