Canadiens, 4-1

Montreal won its ninth straight game over the Bruins this season, taking advantage of its home crowd and some early Boston jumpiness. Aaron Ward screened Tim Thomas on the first goal (Sergei Kostitsyn at 0:34), then Dennis Wideman sent a hard rim that was picked off by Tomas Plekanec and led to an Andrei Kostitsyn strike at 2:02.

"We're a better team than that," said Claude Julien.

Shane Hnidy tipped an Andrew Ference shot to make it a 2-1 game. But the Montreal grinders took over, as Bryan Smolinski scored in the second period and Tom Kostopoulos netted Montreal's fourth goal in the third.

* Carey Price made 17 saves. He was hardly challenged and the Bruins failed to get traffic in front of the rookie netminder.

* Marc Savard tried to keep his shifts short as he adjusted to game action for the first time since March 22. Savard, skating on the third line, saw 15:36 of ice time. "He's been out a couple weeks," said Julien. "I didn't really expect him to come in tonight and take charge of the whole situation. That's not what our team is based on anyway."

* Ference, also playing for the first time since March 22, assisted on Hnidy's goal, but was out of position for the first goal.

* Bad night for the first line of Marco Sturm, David Krejci, and Glen Murray. They were on the ice for two Montreal goals and put a total of five shots (zero for Krejci) on goal.

* Montreal outhit the Bruins by a 37-25 margin.

* The Bruins are scheduled to practice tomorrow at noon at Verdun Auditorium.