Game 76: Koivu bags SO winner over Bruins

“I watched the first two shots and I saw that he was playing very deep in his net and he wasn’t challenging us much. When a goalie plays that style, there’s not a lot of room for a deke so I came up with this.”

The victory gave the Canadiens a perfect 8-0 record against the Bruins this season and allowed the Canadiens to hold on to first place in both the Eastern Conference and the Northeast Division.

Montreal is one point ahead of Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference although the Penguins have a game in hand. And the Canadiens have a five-point edge over Ottawa with the Senators visiting the Bell Centre Monday night (7:30 p.m., RDS, CJAD Radio-800, cjad.com).

While the Bruins fell short of a victory, they did pick up an important point. They are tied for seventh place with Philadelphia but are only two points ahead of ninth-place Washington and three up on Buffalo and Florida.

It was the Canadiens’ first game without the injured Mike Komisarek but Josh Gorges came up with a strong effort as Andrei Markov’s partner. He played a season-high 25:14 and wasn’t on the ice for either of the Boston goals.

And Steve Bégin, who has been chomping at the bit after recovering from a groin injury, led the hit parade with eight hits.

“Like you said, I have a lot of pent-up energy,” said Bégin. “I was out there playing my game. That’s the way I was playing before I was injured.”

The Canadiens took the lead twice in the game but the Bruins came back on both occasions.

Markov scored his 15th goal of the season at 2:20 of the first period when the Bruins failed to clear the puck after Thomas stopped a shot by Michael Ryder.

Marc Savard got that one back when he corralled an errant shot behind the Montreal net and beat Carey Price on a wraparound at 8:36 of the first period.

The Canadiens regained the lead when Andrei Kostitsyn scored his 23rd of the season at 9:49 of the first period. Kostitsyn took advantage of a rebound on a shot by Mark Streit and beat Thomas with a backhander.

Montreal seemed to lose the momentum in the second period and Petteri Nokalainen redirected Mark Stuart’s shot at 9:33.

The Canadiens had a couple of chances to go ahead but Christopher Higgins was stopped on a shorthanded breakaway in the final minute of the second period and Andrei Kostitsyn’s backhand with 8:35 to play in the third period hit the side of the net.

Carey Price stopped 33 of 35 shots and then stopped Zdeno Chara, Phil Kessel and Dennis Wideman in the shootout to improve his record to 19-12-3. He is 6-3-0 since the Canadiens traded Cristobal Huet to Washington.