Morgan Geekie lifts Bruins to thrilling win over Canadiens

BOSTON — Cole Caufield served notice that Team USA made a grave mistake leaving him off the Olympic team, but Morgan Geekie’s pair of goals trumped the brilliant Montreal Canadiens forward’s hat trick in the Bruins’ thrilling come-from-behind 4-3 win at TD Garden on Saturday night.

The previously slumping Geekie scored two goals, including the game-winner late in the third period that was hammered.

At times it looked like the speedy Habs might win this one going away, but the B’s scored three power-play goals, including Geekie’s game-winner. The win pulled the B’s to within a point of the Habs in the Atlantic Division standings.

It was the first time this year the Bruins came back from a deficit after the second period in 18 tries.

The game had a much quieter start than the first two meetings between the teams, both of which began with fisticuffs right off the bat.

Maybe the B’s should have started something right away because the Habs were much sharper in the opening period and they took the first lead of the game at 6:36.

Facing four Bruins defenders at the top of the Boston zone, Caufield slipped through the fence to get behind without the puck after defenseman Mike Matheson gained the blue line. Matheson flipped a pass just off the ice that eluded Jonathan Aspirot’s reach and landed on the stick of Caufield, whose quick snap shot beat Jeremy Swayman high to the glove side.

The B’s were outshot 7-2 in the first period and the Habs did in fact play very well defensively, beating the Bruins to loose pucks and killing plays before they had a chance to grow into anything dangerous.

But the B’s had more chances than those that showed up on the shot clock. Geekie, who had one goal in 14 games, fanned on two glorious one-time attempts on the only power play in the period. Pavel Zacha also heeled a good one-time chance.

And in the final minute of the period, David Pastrnak cruised through the slot and ripped a shot that many thought went in — the goal horn sounded and the crowd erupted — but it only clanged the post.

There was one fight that happened organically when Aspirot dropped the gloves with Kirby Dach after a net-front battle. The B’s needed a little more of that. They were down only a goal, but they had a lot of work to do to get their play up to the level of Montreal’s.

The refs threw the B’s a lifeline when they called a marginal interference on Noah Dobson on Casey Mittelstadt just 25 seconds into the second period.

The first power-play unit was all over the Habs but Sam Montembeault made a couple of quality saves until the second unit cashed in. Fraser Minten made a terrific backdoor pass to Viktor Arvidsson (12), who was stopped by Montembeault on his first shot but the veteran stuck with it and scored on the follow at 1:45.

But the B’s looked the gift horse in the mouth. After Arvidsson’s backhander nearly gave the B’s the unlikely lead, the Habs were breaking the puck out when Zacha took a bad offensive zone penalty.

On the advantage, Caufield took a Nick Suzuki feed at the bottom of the left circle and beat Swayman with the tough-angle shot with Swayman down at 7:37.

The Habs decided to keep the B’s in this one. Kaiden Guhle clipped Sean Kuraly with a high stick — this one a no-doubter — and the B’s went back on the PP.

This time they cashed in on a terrific play by Pastrnak. After Matheson’s short-handed bid was turned away, Charlie McAvoy zipped the puck up to Pastrnak on the left side. On the attack, Pastrnak flipped the puck in the air on a self-pass to his forehand. With the recovering Montreal defenders chasing Pastrnak, the superstar passed it back to Geekie (27) for the open-net equalizer at 9:46.

The deadlock did not last long. Pastrnak was covering on defense on a Montreal dump-in, slipped down and got up in time to interfere with Jake Evans. And Caufield scored from almost the same spot he scored his second goal. This time it looked like Swayman had everything covered except the smallest of slots by his ear. Caufield found it and he had a hat trick at 13:29 of the second.

Then came a major scare. Nikita Zadorov had just pushed the puck up along the boards and Zach Bolduc finished his check on him. Zadorov went airborne and when he came down, the blade of is right skate planted and with most of his 255 pounds coming down, the knee torqued in a concerning way. Zadorov stayed down on the ice and needed some assistance as he skated ever so gingerly off the ice.

But when the third period began, Zadorov was surprisingly back on the ice. He gutted it out but appeared to be laboring. Time will tell if it lingers.

The B’s kept at it in the third and tied it with 6:05 remaining in the third. Minten’s pass intended for a rushing Geekie down the slot did not connect, but Minten (13) followed it up and beat Montembeault on a backhander.

Then, after Alexandre Texier took a holding penalty, the B’s took their first lead of the game with 5:50 left — though only Geekie knew it at first. The sniper, who had been so cold for so long, ripped a slap shot that was such a bullet that no one saw it go past Montembeault. Everyone assumed it deflected out of play, everyone except Geekie, who skated down and pointed to where it was lodged behind the camera in the net. Quite a way to score your 100th goal of your career.