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Price, Subban star as Habs steal Game 1 thriller in Boston

SubbanJump

For the second straight series, the Bruins have opened up by losing home ice.

And for the second straight series, Montreal’s opened by taking it away.

That was the story at TD Garden on Thursday as the Canadiens beat Boston 4-3 in the second overtime of Game 1 of their second-round series. P.K. Subban scored two goals -- the first and last of the night -- while goalie Carey Price was magnificent, making 48 saves while remaining undefeated this postseason.

Here’s Subban’s overtime winner:

The Bruins will undoubtedly feel like they blew a game that should’ve been theirs. They out-shot Montreal 51-33 and dominated the first overtime session firing 14 shots on Price while his counterpart, Tuukka Rask, faced just six.

That said, Montreal held the lead for most of regulation.

The Habs got out to a 2-0 advantage on goals from Subban and Rene Bourque, but frittered it away in the span of four minutes in the third period, when Reilly Smith and Torey Krug scored just 3:46 apart to even the game at two.

After that, Francis Bouillon -- who hasn’t scored a postseason goal in six years -- fired home a Brian Gionta pass as Boston scrambled to cover in its own zone. It looked as though Bouillon’s marker would stand as the game winner, but Johnny Boychuk played the hero late in regulation, scoring his first goal and point of the posteason with 1:58 remaining to even the score at three.

Both teams went scoreless through the first overtime session before Subban converted a power play -- awarded when Matt Bartkowski hauled down Dale Weise -- just 4:10 into the second extra frame. It was the 38th overtime game in the history of the storied Boston-Montreal rivalry, and Subban became the first Habs player to score an OT winner against Boston since Alex Kovalev did it in 2008.

As mentioned above, this marks the second straight series Montreal has swiped home ice advantage in Game 1 -- in overtime, no less. The Habs beat Tampa Bay 5-4 in Game 1 of Round 1, while Boston lost its second series-opener of this postseason after dropping a 1-0 decision to Detroit.