Without Lucic, Bruins beat Habs

Brad Marchand skates to the bench after scoring a goal
As Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price looks on, Boston Bruins' Brad Marchand skates back to the bench after scoring during the third period of Boston's 3-2 win in an NHL hockey game in Boston Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
With Milan Lucic out of the lineup for the Bruins in a game where his physicality, along with his 15 points in 26 career season games against Montreal, is always good to have around, the Bruins were able to hold off Montreal and win 3-2 in a tight game where both goalies came up big for their teams.

In the first period, Benoit Pouliot scored his 6th goal of the season. A little over a minute later, Bruins killer Tomas Plekanec scored to tie the game.

In the second period, David Krejci scored his 6th goal of the season as an Andrew Ference shot/pass went off of Krejci's skate and into the net.

In the third period, Brad Marchand scored his 12th goal of the season on a great keep in at the blue line by Patrice Bergeron, then Tyler Seguin with a sweet aerial pass to Marchand who held onto the puck and went to the backhand for the game-winning goal. Later, another Bruins killer, Erik Cole, scored with 1:14 left in the game to make it 3-2. But the Bruins held on for a 3-2 win.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 28-24 and hits 26-24. Montreal led the game in shots 35-31 and blocked shots 13-11.

The Bruins went 0-for-3 on the power-play while Montreal went 0-for-2.

Tim Thomas made 33 saves on 35 shots. He is now 16-5-0 with a 1.84 GAA and a .943 save percentage this season.

Zdeno Chara led the Bruins in shots with 6. Chara also led the Bruins in ice time with 26:05.

Dennis Seidenberg and Johnny Boychuk both had 3 blocked shots apiece to lead the Bruins.

Nathan Horton and Shawn Thornton led the Bruins in hits with 3 apiece.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 22-9-1 with 45 points, which is first in the Northeast Division and first in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins next game is on Friday hosting the Florida Panthers at 7pm ET. We may see a Shawn Thornton-Krys Barch rematch in that one.

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