At the Bell Centre in Montreal, Brad Marchand scored two goals including the game winner in overtime Monday night as the Boston Bruins rallied past the Montreal Canadiens 3-2.
Marchand staked Boston to a 1-0 lead with his first of the night at 9:21 of the first period. Montreal (17-36-10) would score the next two to take the lead when David Savard tied it at 8:49 of the second, and then a bad Bruins turnover at their own blue line led to a breakaway shorthanded goal from Joel Armia at 1:13 of the third. Connor Clifton sent it to overtime with the equalizer for the B’s with 2:59 left in regulation. Marchand finished it off 34 seconds into the extra session. After a Canadiens chance on one end Erik Haula led a break up the ice, stopped in the right faceoff circle, and shuffled a pass to wide open Marchand right in the slot between the circles. Marchand faked a wrist shot, dangled and deeked left to right, and went to his backhand past the out of position goaltender Jake Allen to end it. Marchand now has 27 goals on the season. Clifton had a goal and an assist and Haula had two assists to help improve Boston to 39-19-5. Jeremy Swayman stopped 26 of 28 shots in goal. The Bruins are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games and are just two points behind both Pittsburgh and the NY Rangers for third place in the Eastern Conference. They will host Tampa Bay at TD Garden on Thursday night.
At the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, the Boston Celtics started quickly eventually building a 26 point lead and held on for a 132-123 victory over the OKC Thunder led by 36 points from Jayson Tatum.
Boston never trailed scoring the first 10 points of the game and bolting out to a 17-2 lead. The Celtics would lead by 17 after one quarter and by 14 at the half. The lead would go to 26 early in the fourth, before Oklahoma City (20-52) would rally to slice it to seven with 55 seconds left, but the guests would hang on to sweep the four game road trip with wins also over Golden State, Sacramento, and Denver. Tatum, the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, added seven rebounds and six assists to his game high point total. Jaylen Brown had 25 points, Grant Williams 20 points and 10 rebounds, while Payton Pritchard and Derrick White added 18 points a piece. Tre Mann had 35 points in the loss for the Thunder. Boston (45-28) has won nine of their last 10 games and 12 of their last 15, moving them just 1/2 game out of second place in the Eastern Conference behind both Milwaukee and Philadelphia. The Celtics will host Utah on Wednesday night at TD Garden.
