Wheels fall of in third period for Bruins, lose to Canadiens before holiday break

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Wheels fall of in third period for Bruins, lose to Canadiens before holiday break

Lauren Campbell · MassLive

Wed, Dec 24, 2025 ·

3 min read

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BOSTON — The Bruins go into the holiday break on a four-game losing streak.

Boston fell to the Montreal Canadiens , 6-2, on Tuesday night at TD Garden.

Despite keeping pace with their rival for most of the game, things fell apart in the third period as Montreal scored four goals to help seal the win.

It took three seconds for the two teams to get acquainted with one another when Tanner Jeannot and Josh Anderson dropped the gloves off the opening draw.

The two engaged in a long, spirited bout before Jeannot got the takedown.

Nikita Zadorov then got into his own bout with Arber Xhekaj at center ice. The Bruins defenseman landed several big rights before he ultimately brought Xhekaj to the ice, firing up the TD Garden crowd.

The Canadiens broke open the scoring when Sammy Blais snuck one past Jeremy Swayman from the right side of the net to make it 1-0.

Marat Khusnutdinov evened things up less than a minute later off a nice setup from Mason Lohrei .

Alex Steeves gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead with 17.9 seconds left in the first period with a power-play goal that he ripped past the shoulder of Jacob Fowler .

The Canadiens needed just 1:58 to tie the game in the second period when Zadorov tried to poke the puck to an unsuspecting David Pastrnak in the neutral zone. Ivan Demidov took advantage of the miscommunication and tied the game at 2-2.

A late double-minor called on Steeves gave Montreal a four-minute power play late in the second period, but the Bruins killed it off.

Boston appeared to take a 3-2 lead in the final seconds of the second, but it was quickly waved off and called goaltender interference even though it was Montreal’s own skater who interfered with Fowler.

The wheels came off in the third for Boston as Montreal scored four goals in five minutes.

The Canadiens broke the tie with 12:56 left in the game when Zachary Bolduc scored after Zadorov’s stick broke on a clear attempt allowing the forward to capitalize.

The Bruins challenged the call for goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld.

Montreal went on a 5-on-3 for 40 seconds and made it count as Cole Caufield gave the Canadiens a 4-2 lead with some nice stick-handling before he tucked the puck by Swayman.

Nick Suzuki made it a three-goal game less than two minutes later with a power-play goal of his own.

Things went from bad to worse for the Bruins as Juraj Slafkovsky gave the Canadiens a four-goal cushion to make it 6-2 — a score Montreal eventually won by.

The Bruins return to action on Dec. 27 after the NHL’s holiday break when they embark on a five-game road trip beginning with the Buffalo Sabres .

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