Bruins celebrate anniversary with 6-3 win over Montreal

The Montreal Canadiens have spoiled many moments for the Bruins over the last 100 years, but they were not able to plant a bleu, blanc et rouge flag on the giant B at center ice at the end of Sunday’s Centennial Game at the Garden.

The Bruins scored the first four goals of the game, including a three-goal blitzkrieg in the first period, and hung on for the 6-3 victory over the last-place Habs.

It may not have been a matchup between the two teams reminiscent of the 1970s, or even a decade ago. But for the B’s, still trying to find their footing this season and hang in the playoff bracket, they’ll take the two points and move on. And the Habs did throw a scare into them, for old time’s sake.

Charlie McAvoy and Charlie Coyle scored a pair of goals each to lead the way in the romp. The day worked out well enough for the home team, the B’s even scored a third-period goal.

The game was all about history and, perhaps fittingly, the first 10 minutes could have been played in a library. It was that quiet in the building.

That changed at 11:45, when the B’s scored the first of three goals in a span of 1:10.

McAvoy got the B’s on the board on a nice individual play. He took a feed from his latest defense partner Jordan Oesterle and took the puck in deep. He faked a shortside shot and that was all it took for goalie Cayden Primeau to over-commit. McAvoy took the puck around the net and scored his fourth of the season on a too-easy wraparound.

Just 1:25 later, David Pastrnak made it 2-0. After Primeau made a great save on a Pavel Zacha backdoor shot off a Pastrnak feed, Zacha dished it out to Pastrnak, who roofed his ninth of the year, snapping a seven-game goal-less streak for the struggling sniper.

Fifteen seconds after that, Charlie Coyle scored on a backhander off a rebound, his sixth of the season, and Montreal coach Martin St. Louis utilized his timeout. It was perhaps a goal too late, but it did stop the bleeding until the first intermission.

And that’s all.

Nikita Zadorov took a delay of the game penalty on the first shift of the second and, 38 seconds into the period, McAvoy had his second of the game. The defenseman pounced on a loose puck in the high slot in his own zone and took off on a breakaway, tucking a backhander past Primeau for the B’s biggest lead of the season.

The Habs finally got one back at 5:42 of the second when defenseman Arber Xhekaj took the puck in deep and banked it off a leg in front.

Some of the old animosity arose after Lane Hutson took an interference penalty penalty on Mark Kastelic. Xhekaj responded by leveling Trent Frederic and the two teams came together. Kastelic tried to get at Xhekaj, who in turn tried to get at him. Neither was able to gain satisfaction, but they both earned 12 minutes in penalties for the truculence.

Just 21 seconds into the third, Coyle scored his second of the game, the first third-period goal the B’s have scored at the Garden since the home opener on Oct. 10.

That was the signal for the Habs to throw a scare into the B’s.

At 2:28, Emil Heineman scored off a one-timer and, at 6:38, Cole Caulfield slipped a shot through Jeremy Swayman, a softy, to bring back some of the old Bruins-Habs anxiety.

Brad Marchand’s offensive zone slashing penalty didn’t help to calm the nerves, but the B’s managed to kill that off and Cole Koepke finally allowed the Garden crowd to breathe easily with an empty-netter with 2:14 left.