Brendan Gallagher scored two goals and Joel Armia, Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle each had two assists for Montreal (1-1-0). Cayden Primeau made 23 saves and Oliver Kapanen had an assist in his NHL debut.

“This is a team that has been waiting for this game,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “And they just played it, better than us for 60 minutes tonight. We had moments, but it wasn’t enough.”

Gallagher gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 8:26 of the first period with a power-play goal, redirecting Armia’s shot from the top of the left circle past Swayman.

Charlie McAvoy tied the score at 11:04 with a wrist shot from a high position on the power play to make it 1-1.

Cole Caufield gave Montreal a 2-1 lead at 12:18 when he fired the puck at the left post after a close-range pass from Guhle at the right point.

Kastelic made it 2-2 with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle at 13:24.

Lindholm gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead at 18:23 by redirecting Zadorov’s shot from the point past Primeau. It was Lindholm’s first goal for Boston and Zadorov’s second assist after both signed long-term contracts with the Bruins when free agency opened on July 1.

“I was just trying to get open in the high position and obviously we had eye contact there, so I kind of knew (Zadorov) wanted to make a shot pass there,” Lindholm said. “So it was a great play by him, a heads-up play, and yeah, it was nice to see him come in.”

Pastrnak made it 4-2 with a one-timer from the slot at 15:56 of the second period, and Koepke made it 5-2 at 16:51 when he knocked down Beecher’s attempt to go to the net.

“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the second period,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “We let in a few goals that we really want back and structurally we can’t make those mistakes. So yeah, (we) dug ourselves too big of a hole.”