A week removed from their overtime loss to the Canadiens at Montreal’s Bell Centre, the Bruins decided to return the favor against their century-long rivals, but in dominant fashion, with a 5-2 victory at TD Garden.

“Absolutely,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said when asked if this was the best his team had performed through 16 games. “For 60 minutes, too. I thought we played the right way for 60 minutes. It’s the way we wanna play.

“Our rush defense was good. It was really good. And we saw what we wanted offensively.”

• The Bruins opened this one up with a bang, really, as Boston hammered Jake Allen and the Canadiens for a staggering 18 shots in the opening 20 minutes of action. (The Canadiens, meanwhile, countered with just eight shots of their own on the Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman in the first period of play.)

  The Bruins’ best looks in the first frame came with a 5-on-4 that turned into a 5-on-3 in the blink of an eye, as Montreal’s Johnathan Kovacevic was whistled for tripping Brad Marchand just 13 seconds after Jesse Ylönen was called for a hook against David Pastrnak.

  Toying with the puck, the Bruins found their first lead of the evening when Charlie McAvoy absolutely unloaded on a one-time, blocker-side bomb through Allen for his third goal of the season.

  The goal was also McAvoy’s third goal in his last five games overall.

• 73 gets it started. pic.twitter.com/twuR5no4EH

  — Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 19, 2023

• But with an 18-shot frame to their name, the Bruins made sure to get more than one tally to their name through 20 minutes of play, and got it with a Trent Frederic tip of a Brandon Carlo shot from the point for the Black and Gold’s second goal of the evening.

  Trent Frederic gets a piece of Brandon Carlo's shot from the blue line to make it 2-0 Bruins late in the first period. Fourth goal of the season for Frederic pic.twitter.com/RC96uJLPWV

  — Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) November 19, 2023

  Scored with less than 40 second left in the first period, the goal set the tone for the Bruins in a night that was basically all Boston.

  Not done at just 2-0, a kind bounce on the way to the Montreal net gave Pavel Zacha his sixth goal of the season, scored 5:18 into the frame.

  And while the Canadiens would finally answer with a Juraj Slafkovsky rip through Swayman at the 13:04 mark of the second period, a Frederic snipe through Allen just moments after his penalty expired by all means put the Habs to bed in this contest as the Boston lead was pushed back to three.

• Trent Frederic fires home his second goal of the game.
  
  4-1 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/1sCfGXlW43

  — Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) November 19, 2023

• With 33 shots through 40 minutes of play, there was no denying that the Bruins made this game an absolute miserable experience for Allen and the Montreal defense.

  The Bruins added to that misery with their fifth goal of the evening, scored 5:39 into the third period (and 33 seconds into a power-play opportunity), with a James van Riemsdyk net-front putaway.

  JVR getting it done from the doorstep. pic.twitter.com/POsFbhugDE

  — Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 19, 2023

  The goal was JVR’s fifth of the season (and in just his 16th appearance of the campaign) and served as the finale on the goal-scoring front for the B’s in their victory over the Habs.

• 

  Nov 18, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Montreal Canadiens right wing Josh Anderson (17) looks for a rebound off a save by Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman (1) during the first period at TD Garden. (Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports)

  And while this date did not include a true rematch between Swayman and Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher, it did feature some more solid goaltending from the B’s netminder, who turned away 20 shots in the win.

  At the other end, Boston’s 44 shots on goal was a season high. Their 22 shots allowed, meanwhile, was their second-lowest single game total of the campaign, trailing only a 21-shot against performance on Opening Night against the Blackhawks.

  The win also marked Boston’s sixth straight home-ice win over the Canadiens dating back to Dec. 2019.

  Prior to the game, forward Patrick Brown officially cleared waivers for the second time this season. Brown clearing waivers will allow the Bruins to shuttle Brown back and forth from Boston to Providence for the next little while in the name of accruing cap space once the team is out of the LTIR pool.

  The Bruins will return to action Monday night when they head down to Tampa for a showdown with the Bolts.

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