Boston defeats Montreal 9–4, extending its winning streak to 8 games.

Boston — At TD Garden on Saturday, the Boston Bruins defeated the Montreal Canadiens 9–4 to record Danton Heinen’s first NHL hat trick.

After leading 5–4 going into the third, the Bruins scored four goals in a row, with Heinen’s third of the game sealing the victory.

Heinen stated, “There are certain games you feel like you play well, and you help the team and stuff like that, and it might not go in.” “I just try to help the team, so it’s nice to help on the scoreboard too, but other nights you may not feel like you have it and sometimes it goes in, so I think that was maybe one of those nights tonight.”

Boston (28-8-9) extended its winning streak to four games and point streak to eight games (5-0-3), led by a goal and an assist from David Pastrnak, who scored his 30th goal of the season. Linus Ullmark made 17 saves in his comeback from a lower-body injury.

For Boston, sixteen players scored a point.

Jim Montgomery, the coach of the Boston Bruins, stated, “I think it talks about the evolution of our team actually growing offensively.” We never imagined spending a night like this, I believe. There are few anomalies among the 82 games, but I believed that this had been happening for four games.

Montreal(19-20-7), which has dropped five of seven games(2-3-2), saw Cole Caufield score in his sixth consecutive game and receive three assists from Sean Monahan. Cayden Primeau made five saves in relief of Sam Montembeault, who finished with 22 saves in 49:13.

Martin St. Louis, the coach of the Canadiens, stated, “I thought it was a great game through two periods.” “It was enjoyable to participate in it. The third period proved challenging. This League will occasionally humble you. The team experienced something similar during the third period.

At 9:18 of the first period, Caufield scored a power-play goal from the right side of the net to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead.

At 12:47, after missing the previous five games due to an upper-body ailment, Brandon Carlo knotted the score at 1-1 by deflecting a centering pass from Trent Frederic.

At 15:00, Joel Armia scored for Montreal with a centering pass off a rush from Joshua Roy.

At 18:10, Jake DeBrusk knotted the score 2-2 with a shot from the side of the net; however, at 19:05, Matt Grzelcyk’s shot pass was deflected by Heinen, giving the Bruins the lead 3-2.

At 6:16 of the second period, Mike Matheson knotted the score 3-3 while on a power play from the high slot.

“[Scoring two power-play goals] is probably the one positive we could take away from it,” Matheson stated. We think we did a decent job of not worrying too much about where you’re at because they’re a great penalty kill.

Off the rush, Heinen gave the Bruins a 4-3 lead at 10:46.

In 49 seconds, Pastrnak found Charlie Coyle for a backhand tip-in that made the score 5-3.

Coyle remarked, “I’m still figuring out [linemates Pastrnak and Brad Marchand’s] tendencies.” They’re elite players, so I’m just trying to make room so I can play my style of play. I don’t want to think about it too much. I’m just attempting to play as best I can and pick things up gradually.

At 13:19, Brendan Gallagher scored a 5-4 goal by piercing Ullmark’s legs.

After converting a breakaway shot of his own, Pastrnak made it 6-4 at 1:26 in the third period. At 4:32, Coyle fed Marchand in the slot to make it 7-4.

Marchand stated, “We were aware that was the way we were going to prevail this year. “Obviously, ‘Pasta’ is an exception—he produces every night—but this is a win by committee, and that’s the way the playoffs should be won.”

At 9:13, Pavel Zacha scored his 100th NHL goal on the doorstep to make it 8-4, and at 10:40, Heinen scored on a power play to make it 9-4 overall.

After Zacha’s goal, Primeau took over for Montembault, who remarked, “Maybe on our breakouts, we did a lot of turnovers.” “We are aware that this side consistently wins the forecheck. We ought to have just kept things easy. We should have just kept fighting, but instead we spoke [into] the third. Even though we were just one goal away, it seemed like we gave up a little too easily, as they scored a few goals right back.

NOTES: Marchand became the first player in Bruins history to record 11 consecutive seasons with 20 goals, surpassing Patrice Bergeron’s 10 and Johnny Bucyk’s 10.After Phil Esposito (8) and Rick Middleton (8), Pastrnak tied Bucyk for the second-most goals in Bruins history with his seventh 30-goal haul. In addition, Pastrnak overtook Petr Klima (6) to tie Jaromir Jagr (15) for the second-most 30-goal seasons by a player born in the Czech Republic in NHL history.