For the 2010 to 2011 season, justSports has been given a press pass to attend Boston Bruins home games. We will cover these games periodically throughout the year.

The Montreal Canadiens entered the TD Garden in Boston last Wednesday night having won five-straight games against the Bruins and eight of their last nine games. Though they may not hold the head-to-head advantage in recent contests, the Bruins can now lay claim to the most entertaining game between the two sides in recent memory.The Bruins defeated the Canadiens in an 8-6 slugfest that featured 45 penalties for a total of 182 penalty minutes, including 7 minutes in the box apiece for Bruins goalie Tim Thomas and Habs keeper Carey Price for fighting during a wild second period.

The Bruins now stand 31-18-7 after two losses to the Detroit Red Wings later that week.

"We knew it was going to be emotional coming in, and we wanted to get emotionally involved," Bruins forward Michael Ryder said. "I think all the guys were pretty pumped about it; that's why there were all the fights and everyone was just engaged. I think it was a battle right to the end."

The first period started off relatively quietly, with the two squads battling back and forth until the Bruins scored 13 minutes, 16 seconds into the period. Forward Mark Recchi dropped the puck off for forward Patrice Bergeron, who found forward Brad Marchand cutting across the face of the net. Marchand skated around Price and dumped the puck in the back of the net.

From there, the hinges fell off for the Canadiens. Boston scored again just 12 seconds later, as defenseman Dennis Seidenberg took a deflection off of Price and fired home his fifth goal of the season. The 12 seconds tied the shortest amount of time between two Bruins goals this season, a feat they also accomplished in a Jan. 10 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

During the ensuing faceoff, Bruins forward Milan Lucic and Canadiens forward Travis Moen were called for cross-checking, and the two squads played 4-on-4. The Bruins soon went on a 4-on-3 advantage but couldn't take advantage.

As time expired in the period, Lucic and Moen tangled it up again, and this time Lucic and Price were both called for roughing. Moen received a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

The second period made the first look like a walk in the park, as the two teams combined for 8 goals, 15 penalties and 27 shots in 20 jam-packed minutes of action. The Habs struck first, knotting up the game on goals by forward Brian Gionta and defenseman P.K. Subban. Gionta's goal came just 25 seconds into the period and was the 200th goal of his career. Defenseman Adam McQuaid put the Bruins back in front at 9:48 off of assists by Horton and Lucic. It was the first goal of the season for McQuaid. Montreal tied the game at 3 just 1:13 later, as Yannick Webber put home his first career goal.

The tie wouldn't last, however, as the Bruins took the lead for good just 31 seconds later. Ryder chipped in his first of two goals on the night to put the Bruins up 4-3. Lucic added another goal less than a minute later off of assists by forward David Krejci, who finished the game with three assists, and Horton who tallied a goal and four assists in total.

Then things got ugly, as seemingly everyone on the ice dropped their equipment and started brawling. As soon as Price left his crease to help out his teammates, Thomas skated the length of the ice and took him on.

"It's always fun to see those guys get involved," Ryder said. "Timmy [Thomas] was emotionally into the game tonight. . He saw Price in the scrum and he wanted to come down to help his teammates."

When the dust finally settled, the Bruins had six players in the penalty box and the Canadiens had five.

It took Montreal just 12 seconds to take advantage of the power play, as Habs forward David Desharnais scored at the 12:48 mark. Lucic added a shorthanded goal 2 minutes later to round out an eventful period.

When he was asked after the game, Desharnais said that it was a period that he will never forget.

"I think it was nuts out there," he said. "In the first period it was pretty quiet. . Then in the second period, it just took off. . It is for a division title, so you know it will be a hard game, but no one expected it to be like that."

The third period started off quietly, but the penalties soon began to add up again. Horton was called for tripping at 6:40, and it took the Canadiens just 26 seconds to cut the deficit to 6-5 as forward Max Pacioretty scored his first of 2 power-play goals in the period off of a nice feed from defenseman James Wisniewski.

The Bruins responded with a power-play goal of their own, as Ryder pushed the margin back to 2 goals. Defenseman Steven Kampfer passed to Seidenberg, who found Ryder cutting across the net a yard in front of the crease. Ryder appeared to have scored earlier during the power play, but it was waved off for goalie interference. Marchand was whistled for running into Price even though replays showed that he was checked into the keeper by Webber.

"That was tough," Marchand said of the play. "I did hit the goalie, but their guy pushed me into him. There's nothing I could have done. I was trying to stop and I think it might have been a tough call but that's how it goes. Thank God [Ryder] scored right after."

Horton got in on the fun with 5:06 left in the game, netting his 14th goal of the season off of a Krejci assist.

Fists flew for the rest of the game, as the final 3 minutes saw countless roughing and fighting penalties as well as five game misconducts. By the end of the match, Boston had just five players left on the bench, while Montreal had six.

"We are going to stand up for one another," Lucic said of the fighting. "We are going to stand up to anyone and we want to be team-tough. I think that is what we showed against Dallas, and that is what we showed tonight."

With 14 seconds left in the game, the Habs scored their sixth goal, as Pacioretty scored his second. It was Montreal's fourth power-play goal of the night, as McQuaid was sent to the box for roughing 11 seconds earlier.

The Bruins then lost a 6-1 decision to the Red Wings last Friday. The Red Wings scored on their first two shots of the game in the first 3:10 of the game and didn't let up from there. The Red Wings defeated the Bruins 4-2 2 days later in Detroit. Forward Todd Bertuzzi led the Red Wings with 2 goals in both of the games.

The Bruins take on the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight.