The Boston Bruins (13-5-1) saw their four game win streak snapped in a 5-2 defeat against the Montreal Canadiens (12-3-4) on Thursday night.

Montreal found its way on the board first as Kirby Dach recorded his second goal of the season. Dach started the breakout by banking a pass to Alex Newhook, who entered the zone before sliding the puck to his left for Florian Xhekaj. The winger found Dach as he sped into the offensive zone. Dach used the speed to circle behind the cage and open the scoring on a wraparound goal to Jeremy Swayman’s right.

Six minutes later, Josh Anderson put home his eighth goal of the season to double the Montreal advantage. Anderson started the opportunity by collecting his own miss after firing a shot wide of the net. From behind the net, Anderson sent it around the boards to Mike Matheson on the right side of the blue line. Matheson fired a shot towards Boston’s net but after a deflection from Jake Evans, Swayman was able to get in front of the attempt. 

After Evans assisted Anderson for the second goal, the two switched roles to widen the Canadiens lead.  Anderson collected a rebound off of Jacob Fowler’s pads and fired a stretch pass through center ice for Evans. Feeling Mason Lohrei close in behind and to the right of him, Evans moved the puck to his backhand and put it past Swayman for both his third goal of the season and Montreal’s third of the game less than five minutes into the second period.

After watching his team concede a fourth goal before the midway mark, Marco Strum opted to send Michael DiPietro in to replace Jeremy Swayman. The Bruins’ starter stopped just 13 of the 17 shots he faced in 28:14 of action. 

Less than four minutes later, Montreal found their fourth of the night as Cole Caufield put home his team best 12th goal of the season. Caufield took the puck off of David Pastrnak and skated the length of the ice before ripping a shot over Swayman’s shoulder, under the crossbar, and into the back of the net.

The offensive onslaught continued for the Canadiens as Phillip Danault made it 5-0 with his second goal of the season. Alexandre Carrier kept the puck in the offensive zone with an outstretched stick before finding Zachary Bolduc curling towards the high slot. Bolduc moved it to Phillip Danault near the right face-off dot, with Danault having plenty of time to fire a one-timer home. 

Boston finally got on the board 38 seconds later as Casey Mittelstadt notched his sixth goal of the season. Nikita Zadorov retrieved the puck in the corner of the Bruins’ defensive end and fired it up the boards. Elias Lindholm collected the puck as he skated into the attacking zone on the right side and sent it to a wide open Mittelstadt in front of the cage. Mittelstadt handled to his right and buried the backhander to cut into the deficit. 

Early in the final period, Boston pulled another goal back as Casey Mittelstadt netted his second goal of the game. Will Borgen fired a pass to Elias Linhom, who returned the puck to Borgen as he entered the zone. The defenseman fired a shot towards Fowler’s net, with the goaltender getting a piece on it despite being screened by Marat Khusnutdinov. Elias Lindholm attempted to backhand in the rebound, only to be denied by Fowler but the third shot of the trip down gave Fowler no chance as Mittelstadt tucked home the rebound. 

The Montreal defense locked down the 5-2 lead over the remainder of the period, including running their blocked shot count up to 23 in the game. With the victory, Montreal leapfrogs Boston for first place in the Atlantic Division.