MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens have become accustomed to being outshot and having goaltender Jaroslav Halak snag victory from defeat.

But they found themselves on the other side of the equation Sunday afternoon as Tuukka Rask made 36 saves to lead the Boston Bruins to a 3-0 victory, halting the club’s 10-game winless streak.

There were differing views on how significant Rask’s play was in this game.

Boston coach Claude Julien’s take on his goaltender’s performance: “Exceptional. He made the big saves when he had to. It was nice to get a big game from our young goalie.”

But the Canadiens accorded Rask only grudging respect.

“He was strong; he made the first stop,” conceded Tomas Plekanec, who had a game-high nine shots on goal. “But we didn’t battle enough for rebounds and we weren’t hungry around the net. We made it easy on him.”

“We had a slow start in the first period. They skated better than us and they took a 2-0 lead and we had to play better. We did, but overall it wasn’t good enough.”

The Canadiens talked before the game about the Bruins’ winless skid and the importance of opening some room between themselves and the Bruins in the standings.

“We said we don’t want to be the team to put themselves back on their feet, but that’s pretty much what we did,” said Plekanec.

The Bruins climbed to within three points of the sixth-place Canadiens with three games in hand. Five points separate the Canadiens and the 12th-place Florida Panthers and every team in the chase pack has at least one game in hand.

The turning point in the game was the Bruins’ second goal, which was scored with fewer than four seconds remaining in the first period.

Marco Sturm converted a rebound off Zdeno Chara’s shot from the point for his first of two on the day. Halak made the initial save but the rebound went directly to Sturm.

“You can’t dig yourself into a 2-0 hole this late in the season when the points are so important,” said Canadiens forward Brian Gionta. “Goals late in a period are always important because they kill momentum. If it’s 1-0 going into the second, it’s a different story.”

Rookie Adam McQuaid opened the scoring with his first NHL goal at 17:32 of the first when his shot from the blue-line was deflected in front by Montreal forward Ryan White.

Sturm’s second goal of the game also went in off a member of the Habs. Midway through the third period, the German launched a seemingly harmless wrist shot from inside the blue-line that was deflected by defenceman Josh Gorges and past Halak.

“Two out of the three (goals) were from our guys,” said Halak, who faced 27 shots. “It’s tough, but we have to look at the good things we did.”

Montreal Gazette