Marchand scores OT winner as Bruins down Habs

MONTREAL — Brad Marchand won’t hold the memory of an overtime game-winner at the Bell Centre too close to his heart. Instead, he’s just happy that his Boston Bruins came back to win 3-2 in overtime against the Montreal Canadiens.

Boston fell behind 2-1 in the second period when Marchand turned the puck over with a pass towards Charlie MacAvoy and let Joel Armia score a short-handed go-ahead goal on a breakaway.

Connor Clifton sent both teams to overtime with just under three minutes to go in regulation. Marchand ended the contest by fooling Jake Allen to grab the win in the first meeting between the eternal rivals at the Bell Centre in 864 days.

“I was just really happy that we didn't lose because of that turnover,” Marchand said. “I kind of owe the group there and it felt good to be able to bounce back and produce in that situation after making such a bad play.”

“It's embarrassing when you make plays like that you feel like you let the whole group down and it's tough to be on that side of it so to be able to bounce back from it, it was nice.”

The winger added that he didn’t like Allen’s reaction after robbing him of a power-play goal at the very end of the second period. The Habs netminder had a stellar 43-save outing but Marchand had the last laugh by swerving around him to ice the game in overtime.

“I kind of knew it was going to come back just because of the way he kind of showboated on the save at the end of the second,” Marchand said. “I had to add a little extra on that one because that save so luckily we won.”

Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said that his team reminds newer players about what playing the Canadiens means to both clubs.

“These are games that our fanbase gets jacked up about so it deserves a little