MONTREAL -- Go crazy, folks, as you can now take your pens to your schedules and emphatically cross out that "if necessary" next to Game 5. It came a few days later than anticipated, but the Bruins finally got their first win of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, defeating the hated Habs by a 4-2 score Monday night (recap) and winning at the Bell Centre for the first time since Feb. 7, 2010.

It was far from the "perfect road game" that the Habs were able to execute in Boston (after jumping out to a 3-0 lead, a team would generally expect to still have its fingernails intact by the end of a game), and for a game in which the B's led for about 57 minutes (and had a multiple goal lead for 29:30), it ultimately ended up being decided by a foolish Carey Price clear early in the second period that turned into a flukey Rich Peverley goal. 

"It was just kind of a lucky play," Peverley said of his tally and first playoff goal of his career. "I think it hit [Mark Recchi's] shin pad, and hit my glove and plopped right in front of me. It was pretty lucky."

Still, it's a win the Bruins will take as they try to pick up ground lost in Games 1 and 2. In the end, Tim Thomas and the B's were able to fend off a 15-shot-on-goal third-period charge from the Habs and make it a series again.

Prior to the game, the popular line of thinking (both from the players and in this space) emphasized the importance of the Bruins scoring the first goal and shutting it down defensively. If Monday’s contest proved anything, it was that a team can most certainly get the ever-important first goal and still end up having to battle to the last minute. With the way the Canadiens kept pushing, it proved a team can score the first three and see the same thing.

Playing in front of their home crowd, the Canadiens seemed to be in position to get an early goal when a miscommunication between Zdeno Chara and Andrew Ference led to a too-many-men penalty at 1:08 of the first period. They didn't capitalize, but David Krejci did. So, too, did Nathan Horton, and then Peverley.

“We were pretty confident still,” Patrice Bergeron, who assisted Krejci’s tally, said of how the Bruins felt about their offense going into the game. “We knew that we could get those goals. It was just a matter of getting there, getting in front of the net. In the first two games, they were first on the puck, and tonight I felt like we were getting a lot better on that.”

Even with the Bell Centre crowd quieted (it actually was for a bit in the second period), the Canadiens fought their way into it and pressured Thomas and the Bruins in ways the B's did not in the first two games at the Garden. Blocked shots still came into play (the Bruins had 10 in the third period), but so too did their goaltender.

For Thomas, it was a closing of the proverbial door that the B's netminder needed. Thomas is only a predictable award ceremony away from the Vezina trophy for his record-setting regular season, but through the first two games of the playoffs, he had yet to face a period like the final 20 minutes of Game 3. Furthermore, the two goals he allowed Monday were the kind that regular-season Thomas would be able to stop every time. But as the Habs desperately fired away late, Thomas saw to it that the puck stayed out when the Habs got their chances, and they got plenty.

Nathan Horton also finally got a sign that his hard work is going towards something good, scoring his first playoff goal as well and tying for the team lead with three shots on goal. The 25-year-old forward went a million miles an hour Saturday to the point of detriment, but perhaps his goal – which was not much prettier than Peverley’s, if at all – can reassure the young scorer.

While the Bruins have plenty of reasons to be encouraged (two big penalty kills in the first 9:27 of the game), there were also the glaring negatives (two penalties in the first 7:27). The first 25 minutes of the game showed the type of game with which the Bruins could win a series, but they let the Habs make a game of it as the night wore on. The B’s regulars won’t skate Tuesday in Lake Placid, but when they take the ice Wednesday, there is certainly work to be done. Some of those lucky bounces might not come next time, but the Bruins will be more than happy with the fact that for the first time this series, things broke their way on Monday. 

“If there's a positive out of it, we got a win,” Peverley said. “It's one win, and they have two, so we've got to hopefully get the next one.”