BOSTON/ CALGARY – Trent Frederic scored two goals, Brad Marchand collected his 500th career assist as the Boston Bruins cruised past longtime rivals the Montreal Canadiens 5-2.
Facing the Canadiens for the second time in eight days, Boston got some payback for a 3-2 overtime loss in Montreal.
Pavel Zacha, Charlie McAvoy and James van Riemsdyk also scored for the Bruins (13-1-2). Boston posted NHL records for wins (65) and points (135) last season.
“When you bring a lot of people in town and there’s a ceremony, you never know how the team is going to come out,” Marchand said according to AP.
“I thought we had a great game. We kind of owed it to those guys. They’re the ones that built the foundation that we try to uphold. It’s great that we were able to put a game like that in front of them.”
The Bruins are 11-0-1 in their last 12 games against Montreal. Jeremy Swayman, who took the OT loss last weekend, improved to 7-0-1 and made 20 saves. “I would love to be in their shoes doing the same thing one day,” Swayman said about the Cup winners.
Elsewhere, a 5-4 shootout win over the Calgary Flames halted a seven-game losing streak for a New York Islanders team hungry for victory.
“We´ve been through a lot, not just in this tough stretch, but over the years this group´s been challenged with a lot of different things,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said.
“We´re comfortable in a challenging situation, facing adversity, dropping as many as we have. We´ve just got to fight through it. You´ve got to grind through it. It´s a tough league. Nothing´s given. That was no different tonight from our effort and the way we played.
“Didn´t matter how, we needed those two (points).”
Mark Scheifele, meanwhile, had a goal and two assists to lead the Winnipeg Jets to a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes.
“I´m just going to continue to work on my game,” said Scheifele, who has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in his last six games.
“I feel good, a lot of good thoughts on my mind of what to work on in practice. You just have to keep it going.
“There is always growth in the game. There is never any complacency, and you just need to continue wanting to work. That´s my thought. I like my game, and I just want to keep growing it.”
Kyle Connor, with his league-leading 14th goal, Josh Morrissey, Vladislav Namestnikov and Mason Appleton also scored for Winnipeg (10-5-2), which has won three in a row and six of its last seven. Laurent Brossoit made 16 saves.
With the win, the Jets concluded their five-game homestand with a 4-1-0 record.
“In this league, every team is tough to beat and everybody has their different things that they like to throw at you,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel.
“Our group, right now, is confident and we´re doing a lot of really good things, and we´re a hard team to play against.”
Matt Dumba and Matias Maccelli scored goals for Arizona (8-7-2) and Karel Vejmelka stopped 21 of 25 shots.
“I´m really happy about our effort,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “I´m really happy about our mindset defensively, our mindset away from the puck. That was really good.
“The only part of the game that I did not like was the way that we played in the offensive zone when we have possession of the puck.
“I liked our forecheck but, when we are in possession, I did not like that fact that we were trying for an extra play.”
