MONTREAL – Tuukka Rask still has a long way to go before his 5-15-3 lifetime record against the Montreal Canadiens starts to look respectable, but the B’s goaltender took a giant step in that direction on Tuesday night.
Rask made 38 saves, many of them high quality, in a 4-1 win for the Boston Bruins over the reeling Habs at the Bell Centre, and stopped 29-of-30 shots in the final 40 minutes while making certain that his Bruins team never trailed in the game. Afterward the Finnish netminder shrugged off any of the questions about his struggles against Montreal, but he was clearly making a statement on the ice after the whole team was humbled in the Winter Classic.
“I’ve always been past it,” said Rask, who improved to 5-6 lifetime at the Bell Centre where his numbers are actually pretty decent. “Obviously I haven’t had the wins, but I felt like I’ve played some pretty good games. So I think [a win] was good timing, but I think most importantly we’re trying to improve our game as a team. We were trying to get better as a team, and I think we did that.
“We just wanted to play good. Obviously the outcome of the last game against them was pretty awful, so we just wanted to get back on track against Montreal, and keep improving our game. So that was good, but it wasn’t really about payback [for the Winter Classic].”
The big stretch for Rask and the Bruins was the second period when Montreal whipped up their attack, and the Bruins were in the middle of a tight 1-1 game where a mistake would have allowed the Habs to start building momentum. The Canadiens scored the tying goal on a smoked Mark Barberio one-timer that Rask wouldn’t have much chance of stopping, but every other turnover and defensive zone mistake by the B’s was erased by Rask. It was striking to watch Rask stand tall vs. the Habs, and the Carey Price-less Canadiens allow a couple of wraparound goals to Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak that wouldn’t have been successful with Price in net.
“Tuukka was really good tonight,” said Claude Julien. “I think defensively we were good, but whenever there was an odd breakdown, or them making a great play, I think Tuukka came up very big for us.”
The Bruins and Rask will just hope that kind of performance continues for the next three straight years or so, and he can continue working toward evening out those unsightly career numbers against his arch-rivals.