Visitors were finished by poor start

Bruin Milan Lucic brought his rough-and-tumble style to his playoff debut, meeting up with Michael Ryder in the third. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

MONTREAL - Any hopes the Bruins would be able to start the playoffs with a clean slate against the Canadiens were quickly dashed.

With the Canadiens' Kostitsyn brothers scoring 1:28 apart in the opening minutes, Game 1 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series felt like a continuation of the regular-season series in which the Bruins claimed only 1 of 16 points.

The Bruins' starting lineup found itself with a blown mission just 34 seconds into the game before a delirious, enthusiastic, and decidedly partisan sellout crowd of 21,273 at Bell Centre.

Milan Lucic, Glen Metropolit, P.J. Axelsson, Andrew Ference, and, in particular, Aaron Ward could only hang their heads after rookie Sergei Kostitsyn beat Tim Thomas to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead.

The Bruins goalie had little chance to stop Kostitsyn, who pounced on a rebound after Thomas stopped a shot from the right point by defenseman Patrice Brisebois that struck Ward's leg on the way in.

"We ran out of position," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Instead of staying compact like we normally do and just play in their area, we got caught out of position and obviously Ference got caught high, and sure enough the player behind him had a chance to go right to the net for a rebound."

Kostitsyn's older brother, Andrei, also scored in his playoff debut, finishing off a centering pass by linemate Tomas Plekanec to put the Canadiens up, 2-0, just 2:02 in.

The sudden deficit was a worst-case scenario for Julien, who would have hoped his players had seen enough of the Canadiens in the regular season to be able to handle the heightened playoff intensity.

"We looked nervous at the beginning," Julien said. "Obviously, this is a team that has played in this building all year long. We came in here and, obviously, seemed a little nervous and when you're nervous, you make mistakes, and hopefully that part of it is out of the way now."

The quick lead put the Canadiens ahead for good, despite Shane Hnidy's goal on the Bruins' second shot of the period, at 8:34, which drew Boston within 2-1.

Former Bruin Bryan Smolinski blocked any momentum the Bruins gained when he scored early in the second and fourth-liner Tom Kostopoulos iced it in the third when he became the Canadiens' third player to score in his playoff debut.

"I think the way we played tonight, everybody brought their 'A' game," veteran Canadiens defenseman Roman Hamrlik said. "Our goaltending was excellent and I thought our defense played pretty well. I think we can play better in our zone. We used our speed and that's our biggest quality. That's what we have to do every game against Boston."

The Bruins were outshot in every period as the Canadiens held a commanding 32-18 margin overall. Carey Price, the Canadiens' 20-year-old rookie goaltender, was rarely tested behind Montreal's stingy defense.

"The guys really played well in front of me," Price said. "They really helped me out a lot out there, not seeing as much rubber as normally."

The Canadiens opened the playoffs without captain Saku Koivu, though Montreal's blue line got a huge boost with the return of Mike Komisarek, the team's leader in hits and blocked shots.

"We worked hard during the regular season to gain that home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs and it's up to us to use that to our advantage," said Komisarek, who missed the last seven games of the regular season because of a hip injury. "Right off the bat, I think the guys fed off the energy and electricity in the building.

"The fans were unbelievable - you get goose bumps coming out to that ovation. The guys definitely responded and we're going to have to have a great start the next game."

The Bruins' mission is to find a way to ensure that doesn't happen tomorrow night. Otherwise, they'll find themselves down in the series similar to the hole they put themselves in from the outset of Game 1.