Bruins Go For Season Sweep Of Shorthanded Habs

5 p.m. ET
TD Garden – Boston, MA
TV: NESN
Radio: 98.5 FM The Sports Hub

Season Series/Schedule
Date      Game                                    GWG
1/13       BOS 4 @ MTL 3 SO           Brad Marchand
1/17       MTL 1 @ BOS 4                  Ryan Spooner
1/20       BOS 4 @ MTL 1                  Torey Krug
3/3         MTL @ BOS       

Team Leaders
Bruins                                                                                   Canadiens
Brad Marchand, 60                          Points                   Galchenyuk/Gallagher, 39
Patrice Bergeron, 27                       Goals                    Brendan Gallagher, 22
Brad Marchand, 36                          Assists                  Alex Galchenyuk, 24

After beating the Canadiens three times in the same week back in January, the Bruins look to complete the season sweep later today.  

It they win, it will be their sixth straight victory over the Canadiens and their first regular season sweep over them since the 1994-95 season.

The Habs have endured a miserable season of injuries and underachievement and will not be making the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring. 

Even when they win, things find a way to go wrong.  Both captain Max Pacioretty and defenseman Victor Mete were injured in last night's 6-3 win over the New York Islanders and neither are expected to play today.

The Bruins faced Carey Price in all three of the previous meetings this season, but they are likely to face Antti Niemi today as Price is out with a concussion.  Tuukka Rask will make his fourth start of the year against the Habs.  He has a .935 save percentage against them in the first three games.

Brad Marchand has enjoyed a nice season against Montreal with two goals and five points to go along with the game winning shootout goal in the first meeting.  David Pastrnak has three goals versus the Habs. Pacioretty is the only Canadien with more than one goal against the Bruins this season.

Probable Bruins Lineup
FORWARDS
Brad Marchand - Riley Nash - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - David Krejci - Rick Nash
Brian Gionta - David Backes - Tommy Wingels
Tim Schaller - Sean Kuraly - Noel Acciari

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
Zdeno Chara - Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug - Kevan Miller
Nick Holden - Brandon Carlo

GOALTENDER
Tuukka Rask (26-11-4, 2.27 GAA, .919 save %, 2 SO)

INJURY REPORT
LW-Anders Bjork (shoulder) out, C-Patrice Bergeron (foot) out, D-Matt Grzekcyk (lower-body) out

Probable Canadiens Lineup
FORWARDS
Nicolaus Deslauriers - Phillip Danault - Artturi Lehkonen
Alex Galchenyuk - Jonathan Drouin - Brendan Gallagher
Paul Byron - Jacob De La Rose - Nikita Scherbak
Andrew Shaw - Byron Froese - Daniel Carr

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
Karl Alzner - Jeff Petry
Rinat Valiev- Noah Juulsen
Mike Reilly - David Schlemko

GOALTENDER
Antti Niemi (4-6-2, 3.53 GAA, .897 save %, 0 SO)

INJURY REPORT
RW-Ales Hemsky (upper-body) out, D-Shea Weber (foot) out, G-Carey Price (concussion) out, LW-Charles Hudon (upper-body) out, D-Victor Mete