Third period a dead end for Bruins

What happens on Causeway Street, stays on Causeway Street.

Or at least it should.

Set up with what looked like a comfortable 3-1 lead late in the second period, the Bruins booted away fortune like a bunch of junkie gamblers at a blackjack table last night, and stumbled out of the Garden 6-3 losers to the Montreal Canadiens. Their third straight loss, and sixth in the last eight games, all but wiped out the Bruins' chances of qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs and left their coach, Dave Lewis, enumerating his club's need to develop talent, character, and leadership.

"That hasn't changed since Day 1, and it's going to be continuing," said Lewis, trying to remain on mission despite the walls that are caving in around his squad, "because we aren't good enough right now."

Truth is, as bad as things looked as last season faded into oblivion, the "new culture" Bruins of March 2007 look even worse. They changed the parts dramatically over the summer, and turned over the roster almost as dramatically as the season played out, and here they are about to get DNQ'd for a second straight season. The rare time they do establish a lead (see: second period), their shaky confidence thins out quickly.

"We should have been, 'Hey, we're up, 3-2, right where we want to be,' " said stalwart netminder Tim Thomas, reflecting on how the club's mind-set should have stood at the second intermission -- a late goal by Tomas Plekanec not enough to rub out the Boston lead. "But . . . that's not the way it was."

Instead, Mike Johnson, Maxim Lapierre, and Chris Higgins rattled off three goals in a span of only 2:16, turning the 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 advantage at 8:51, almost with the speed with which Brad Boyes was jettisoned to the Blues at last month's trade deadline.

Johnson connected on a power play, slamming home a one-time slap from the left side off a Saku Koivu feed. Lapierre gained a step on Mark Mowers low in the slot and lifted in a doorstep shot after Mark Streit slipped a feed by Andrew Ference with a nifty backhander. Higgins finished off on a wraparound, after Plekanec plucked the puck away from Patrice Bergeron in the neutral zone with the ease of a pickpocket working Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Shift by painful shift, the Bruins made mental and physical mistakes that years ago, in a time long lost to expansion and the overall lowering of expectations, would have led to guaranteed AHL deportment by sunrise. No longer. What happens on Causeway Street remains on Causeway Street, no matter how poorly it plays.

"In the third period, we just got away from our system a little bit," said captain Zdeno Chara, who landed four shots on net and led his squad with five hits. "Too many mistakes." All the harder to understand, he said, considering that "everyone was ready to play . . . we were hungry."

Out of the gate, after beginning the night without a goal for 138 minutes 25 seconds, the Bruins looked a little better, and Phil Kessel knocked home a rare go-ahead goal with 2:09 gone in the first. Repeated penalties -- more lack of discipline, a team staple this season -- led to an Andrei Markov power-play goal that tied it with 7:23 gone. But with 2:27 to go before the break, Brandon Bochenski made a nice play to keep the puck in at the blue line, and his alert pass to the net led to an easy Marco Sturm pot for the 2-1 lead.

In the second, despite Sturm being turned away on an early breakaway, the Bruins bumped the lead to 3-1 (their first two-goal lead since March 11) when Mowers banked in a sweet Kessel feed as the rookie rushed in from the left halfboard. But that's where their fortune ended.

With 1:49 to go before the second break, Plekanec, after first being turned back by a sensational Thomas stop, rushed to the front and potted his own rebound. Andrew Alberts failed to make the clear, or to contain the hot puck, and the opportunistic Plekanec had it down to 3-2.

"It changed the momentum . . . it changed the energy," Lewis said of Montreal's second strike, noting that a neutral-zone turnover led to Plekanec's break-in on the left side. "I know Andrew Alberts was right there [in front of the net], and the puck went under his skate, or heel. We have to cover the guy, or get to the puck . . . one or the other."

In this case it was neither. Opportunity lost. Much like the 2006-07 season.