Tim Thomas and Carey Price drop the goalie equipment and square off. (Getty Images)
In the first period, Brad Marchand scored his 15th goal of the season and Dennis Seidenberg scored his 5th goal of the season to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead. The period ended with some rough stuff as Milan Lucic gave goalie Carey Price a few shoves and both earned some penalties.
In the second period, things just broke out, goals and fights. Twenty-five seconds in the period Bruins killer Brian Gionta scored to make it 2-1. Later on, Subban scored to tie the game. 1:18 later, Adam McQuaid scored his 1st goal of the season to make it 3-2 Bruins. 1:13 later, Weber would tie the game 3-3 for Montreal. 31 seconds later, Michael Ryder scored his 15th goal of the season to make it 4-3 Bruins. 59 seconds later, Milan Lucic scored his 22nd goal of the season to make it 5-3 Bruins.
Then it got crazy as Marchand hit James Wisniewski on an icing call and Brian Gionta came charging in at Marchand. Marchand and Gionta wrestled on the ice and for whatever reason Max Pacioretty went after Steve Kampfer, who recently came back from a broken nose, so Zdeno Chara came rushing in and went after Pacioretty himself. We can also assume that Chara wanted a piece of Pacioretty since their last meeting, but with Roman Hamrlik hanging onto him he couldn't get loose to throw punches as they wrestled around too. Tim Thomas saw Carey Price go into the pile twice and after the second time Thomas saw enough and went down the ice to challenge Price. They dropped the equipment and didn't have much of a fight as Thomas lost his balance and they held onto each other after that, both smiling about their fight. Video of the goalie fight here.
17 seconds after the line brawl, David Desharnais scored for Montreal making it a 5-4 lead for the Bruins. 2:01 later, Lucic scored his 23rd goal of the season, a shorthanded goal, to make it 6-4 Bruins.
In the third period, Pacioretty scored to make it a 6-5 Bruins lead. Later, Ryder scored but the goal was called off because Marchand was pushed into Price, and somehow the ref missed it and deemed it goalie interference. That was a bad call there. A little later Ryder would get that goal back as he scored a power-play goal, his 16th goal of the season, to make it 7-5 Bruins. Later in the period, Nathan Horton scored his 14th goal of the season to make it 8-5 Bruins.
Then more rough stuff came as Horton and Subban had a scrum, with Horton cross checking Subban, which brought in Hal Gill and Lucic. Across from the scrum, for some reason David Krejci dropped the gloves with Benoit Pouliot, who is much bigger and more experienced in fighting than Krejci is, and Pouliot dropped Krejci with a punch. Krejci had a bloody lip as he went to the dressing room. Hopefully he doesn't have any concussion symptoms from that punch.
With 49 seconds left in the game, Andrew Ference tripped up diver Tomas Plekanec and Travis Moen went after Ference. They had a spirited scrap with both guys throwing punches. Two other fights then erupted, the camera cut to them late, with Shawn Thornton trying to get after Roman Hamrlik with the ref trying to pull him away (Hamrlik took a late shot at Thomas after the whistle), and Johnny Boychuk pounded the crap out of Jaroslav Spacek. After those two fights settled down, Tom Pyatt wanted a piece of Gregory Campbell and well he got it. Campbell bloodied Pyatt with a lot of left uppercuts to the face.
After all of that, 24 seconds later, Pacioretty slew footed McQuaid so McQuaid went after him and started throwing punches to a turtling Pacioretty. Pacioretty would then score a garbage goal to make it 8-6.
I thought that the Bruins-Stars game was the game of the season, but I was wrong, this Bruins-Canadiens game was game of the season. What a game, this was an instant classic. Pictures and videos from the game coming soon!
Tim Thomas got the win and is now 26-6-6, with a 1.91 GAA, and a .942 save percentage.
Some quotes from the players after the game
Tim Thomas talking about his fight with Carey Price:
"He was jumping in. I went off the blue line and he backed into his crease. And then so I'm like okay, and then he went in again and you just can't let it be an outnumbered situation and so that's what I was thinking when I went down there. He was more than willing to fight. And I had this big old plan. I was going to grab his right and I was going to throw lefts because I know he's bigger and taller and has a reach on me. And I thought I could do a better job throwing lefts in him and when I went to grab he got a good hold on my right arm and I got nothing. So then I was like, oh now what do I do? Because I know he's got a big right cocked and ready to come so I tried to switch arms and get my right free and I grabbed him by the back of the shirt and when he threw the right I pulled on...I was trying to pull him off-balance and his shirt came off his head and then I fell and…actually as I was falling my left arm came free and but then it was over. He fought with the fighter's manners as far as not hitting when you're down."
Adam McQuaid about things getting rough at the end of the game:
Yeah, that's what I felt. I should probably keep my cool a little better there. I can't take an instigator or anything late in the game like that. But that was kind of the reason I did what I did there."
Notes from the game
This game had a combined 192 penalty minutes.
As of right now, after tonight's game, the Bruins lead the league in fighting majors with 55.
Punk of the game goes to Max Pacioretty with his antics of going after Kampfer during the first line brawl and then slew footing McQuaid near the end of the game.
Tyler Seguin was scratched, Jordan Caron back up with the Bruins played 7:07 in the game, and Zack Hamill again played.
The line of Krejci-Horton-Lucic was on fire. Horton had 5 points, 1 goal and 4 assists, and was +5. Krejci had 3 assists and was +5 with a fight. Lucic had 2 goals, 1 assist, was +5, and had 16 PIMs.
I have a feeling the Montreal fans will be crying about all the fights. You can thank Subban and Pacioretty for that as the guys on Versus said, making their teammates answer the bell for the stuff they start. You better know who you're playing against before starting stuff.
It's funny how TSN's Pierre McGuire was going on and on about how bad Gomez, Eller, and Kostitsyn were being a -4, but I didn't hear him say anything about Subban being a -3... just saying.
NESN game summary video
NESN summary of the fights in the game
Onto the next one
The Bruins have a home-and-home with the Detroit Red Wings next. The Bruins play on Friday (in Boston) and Sunday (at Detroit) against the Red Wings.
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