Canadiens recover, end Bruins' winning streak at six

MONTREAL --Zdeno Chara became the 21st player to play 1,500 games in the NHL, but the Boston Bruins had their six-game winning streak end with a 5-4 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Chara, who has been the Bruins captain since 2006, is the third player born outside of North America to reach the milestone, joining Jaromir Jagr (1,733 games) and Nicklas Lidstrom (1,564).
He was given an ovation by the Montreal crowd when his achievement was announced in the first period.
WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Canadiens highlights]
"I really appreciate that," Chara said. "It was very classy, and it's something that I will definitely remember."
Victor Mete scored twice, Ben Chiarot and Tomas Tatar each had a goal and an assist, and Carey Price made 21 saves for Montreal (8-5-2), which is 4-1-0 in its past five games. Claude Julien became the 19th coach in NHL history to coach 1,200 games.

"It's probably what I expected for my first Boston-Montreal matchup, so it didn't disappoint," Chiarot said. "It was a fun game. Two teams that like to play on offense, and I think you saw that."
Tuukka Rask made 26 saves for Boston (11-2-2), which lost in regulation for the first time since Oct. 10 to end its point streak at 10 games (8-0-2).
"It's one of those nights when you feel like instead of a hockey puck, it's a golf ball out there," Rask said. "You're just not tracking it well, so tough night for me, but I thought we battled well. We could have easily won the game, but I couldn't make a save."
Bruins forward David Pastrnak scored to extend his point streak to an NHL career-high 13 games (15 goals, 15 assists). His linemate, Brad Marchand, had his NHL career-high 13-game point streak end.

After Sean Kuraly tied the game 4-4 with his first goal of the season at the right post at 3:03 of the third period, Charlie Coyle appeared to give the Bruins a 5-4 lead at 5:23, but Julien challenged the play for offside, and the goal was reversed after video review.
"It was a big part of the game," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. "It didn't go our way, so that's the way it goes sometimes."
Chiarot scored to give Montreal a 5-4 lead with a shot that went under Rask's glove at 9:06.
Mete scored to make it 1-0 at 1:13 of the first period after getting a loose puck in the right face-off circle.
Pastrnak scored a power-play goal on a one-timer from the left circle to tie it 1-1 at 14:55 of the first. Torey Krug had the primary assist for his 300th NHL point.
Tatar put the Canadiens ahead 2-1 at 16:45 on a 2-on-1, and Paul Byron scored 31 seconds later to extend the lead to 3-1 with his first of the season at 17:16.

Connor Clifton scored his first NHL goal at 7:17 of the second to cut it to 3-2.
Anders Bjork tied it 3-3 on a rebound in front at 18:13, but Mete scored his second goal of the game 42 seconds later to make it 4-3 at 18:55 on a shot from the right point.
"I came into this game wanting to skate more and create a little bit more, and I was able to do that," said Mete, who has scored three goals in the past nine games after not scoring in his first 126 NHL games.

They said it

"They came out right away and they outworked us, plain and simple, and we kind of fell inside a hole ourselves. And that's all you can do at that point, is put your head down and start working because we weren't doing that before. But we see what we can do when we play like that. When we play like that, more times than not, we're going to come out with a win." -- Bruins forward Charlie Coyle
"We want to be a playoff team, and these are the games you have to win. These are the games that kind of show you what you're made of. And we know how good Boston has been, all the rivalry between them, and this was a big test for our group tonight. I thought we responded really well, top to bottom. Every line played great for us tonight." -- Canadiens forward Paul Byron

Need to know

Chara is the third active player with 1,500 games played, joining San Jose Sharks forwards Patrick Marleau (1,669) and Joe Thornton (1,582). … Julien is 635-414-141 with 10 ties in 18 NHL seasons with the Canadiens, Bruins and New Jersey Devils.

What's next

Bruins:At the Detroit Red Wings on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, SNE, SNO, TVAS, FS-D, NESN, NHL.TV)
Canadiens:At the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSP, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)