MONTREAL — Through the first two games of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, the goals clearly have not come in bulk for the Bruins. With nothing more than a Patrice Bergeron tally in the second period Saturday (which came with Boston already trailing by two) to show for the offense, Claude Julien’s club should know they need to beat Carey Price more often, and far earlier. 

The Canadiens wiped out Boston’s home-ice advantage on Thursday and Saturday, scoring the first goal early, draining the energy from the building and shutting it down defensively with blocked shot after blocked shot on both occasions. Down 2-0 and entering a building in which they couldn’t find a regular-season win (0-2-1, or, as it would read in the playoffs, 0-3), the Bruins are now forced to do just what the Habs have done. 

The B’s have played from behind for all but 3:27 of the series thus far, but if they can get their first lead of the series on Monday, perhaps they can be the ones to take the home team and crowd out of it.  

“They've done it here,” David Krejci said at the Garden Sunday before the team departed for Montreal. “We were ready. In the room, the guys were ready. We were excited for the games. Then they get the first goal. It kind of shocked us a little bit, shocked the fans, too. It was really hard to come back. Hopefully the next game, we're going to get the first goal so we can control the game from there.”

The B’s inability to control the game isn’t just limited to the first goal. The Habs managed to score the game's first two goals in both Game 1 and Game 2, and though turnovers and poor play by the defense have led to them, the offense has paid the real price. It’s not as though the Bruins pack it in once they fall behind, but with the way Montreal has tightened up defensively when given one or two-goal leads, it becomes far more challenging to really give Price a hard time. 

“I think it’s pretty obvious here that playing with the lead makes a difference, especially in the playoffs playing catch-up hockey,” Julien said Sunday. “They made a living out of that last year in the playoffs, of sitting back absorbing the other team’s attack and collapsing and relying on some good goaltending. And they’ve done that. Whenever they got that early lead, which they’ve done well, then they push teams to try to get out of their comfort zone and start taking chances, so that’s the thing that they’ve done well. 

“We’ve got to make sure that we don’t keep giving them those early goals because now you’re playing into their game. We got to make sure we keep that puck out of our net and hopefully we get the first goal. If we do that, then maybe you force them to play out of their comfort zone and start getting away from their game.”

Two years ago, the Bruins did show they could battle back at the Bell Centre after seeing the Habs score first (winning Games 3 and 4 in such fashion), but it’s not something on which they should hang their hats. Knowing how tough the Canadiens have made it once grabbing the lead and how poorly the B’s first line has played, the opportunity to actually play a more open game for more than three minutes might be able to get the Milan Lucic – Krejci – Nathan Horton line (one that was broken up in the third period Saturday) going again.

“The first one's a big one. If you get the first goal, they're the ones who have to attack, so they're going to open up a little bit and we can control the game a little bit,” Krejci said. “That's what it's about.

“We are the first line, and we've got to produce,” he added. "I think we've had really good chances the last couple of games. We had some great shifts. It's just too bad we didn't get the first goal. We'd like to get a goal. We expect it from our line. If you're going to get the first goal, it's going to be a different game.”

When the B's crushed the Habs on March 24 by a 7-0 score, the wheels came off for Montreal as soon as Johnny Boychuk scored 61 seconds into the game. Krejci feels that the same energy and effort is there for the Bruins, but that the biggest difference has been that the Habs have been able to get on the board first.

"We were in their face. You could tell that they didn't want to play that game,” Krejci said of the March 24 win. "We came out hard and we were all over them, so we were really tough on them. We tried to do the same thing the last few games, but in both games, they just scored the first goal pretty early in the game. It was really hard to come back against as good a defensive team as they are. It always comes to the first goal. They like to get the first lead, an early lead. That's what they did the last two games and they kind of shut it down. It wasn't easy to get through them.”

The Bruins had only two occurrences this season in which they totaled just one goal over two games. They scored at least three goals the next game in both cases (one of which saw them score at least three in six straight contests). Of course, comparing the regular season to where the Bruins are now is far from telling. For now, the B’s will have to take it one goal at a time, and if that next one just so happens to come before the Habs jump out to a 2-0 lead, things will be that much better.