Canadiens Rally To Stun Bruins (12/8/24)

For two periods it looked like the Boston Bruins were going to win their second game of the season at home. The Bruins were leading the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 going into the third period due to Carson Cooper with two goals and Bobby Rowe's first goal of the season. Instead Aurele Joliat had other plans. Joliat scored twice less than three minutes apart to put Montreal ahead with 11:56 remaining in the game, earning a hat trick in the process. Despite having almost 12 minutes to score the game tying goal, the Montreal defense and goalie Georges Vezina held on to beat the Bruins 4-3 at Boston Arena.

                                                              Damn you Joliat!

Unlike the previous games, penalties weren't a factor. Smokey Harris, Jimmy Herbert, George Redding and Alf Skinner took penalties but the Bruins defense didn't allow a powerplay goal. Howie Morenz opened the scoring 6:55 into the first period to put Montreal on top but Carson Cooper answered with 7 minutes left in the period. Aurele Joliat began his epic night with a goal with 1:40 left in the period but Cooper scored his second goal with just 4 seconds left in the period to tie the game 2-2 going into the second period.

The second period belonged to the Bruins as they didn't allow a goal with Hec Fowler stoning Montreal cold. Bobby Rowe scored his first goal of the season with 10 minutes left in the second period to put Boston on top. Things looked good as the period ended with the Bruins up 3-2.

Then it all went to hell in the third period as Joliat scored 6:27 into the third period and earned a hat trick with another goal at 9:04 to put Montreal on top. The Bruins now had just under 12 minutes to tie the game, preferably with a Cooper hat trick. Sadly it wasn't meant to be as Montreal goalie Georges Vezina held the Bruins scoreless the final twelve minutes to give Montreal the 4-3 comeback victory.

                                                               Valiant effort by Cooper

Reaction:

This game was a kick in the pants. The Bruins were almost singlehandedly beaten by Aurele Joliat the same way Jack Adams beat them in Toronto. If only Cooper could have scored on Vezina one more time, oh well. Still, for an expansion team the Bruins hung in there and they're not going to win them all. They took the defending Stanley Cup champion Canadiens to the limit in Boston so they're going to want to do better their next matchup in Montreal. As for this game, too bad they couldn't hang on to the lead. Two nights from now the Bruins travel to Hamilton to play the Tigers in the next game. Jimmy Gardner has a great team on his hands in Hamilton and the Bruins will have to play their best to win that one.