The Bruins beat the Canadiens 4-1 to extend their points streak to 14 games.
BOSTON — One way or another, Wednesday was to be a night of firsts at TD Garden.
Former coach Claude Julien paid his first visit since the Bruins fired him last Feb. 7.
Willie O’Ree, the Bruin who became the first black player to compete in an NHL game 60 years ago on Thursday, was honored throughout the day.
The Bruins wanted the firsts to end there, and succeeded.
They avoided sustaining their first loss in regulation since Dec. 14 by beating the Canadiens, 4-1, to extend their points streak to 14 games (10-0-4).
Tuukka Rask (21 saves) improved to 13-0-2 in his last 15 decisions, and the line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak figured in two goals, one of them during a power play.
The Bruins will try to stretch their streak in Thursday night’s road game against the Islanders (NESN, 7 p.m.), after which they head to Montreal on Saturday night to face the Canadiens for the third time in eight days.
The first period followed a pattern that has become familiar from just before the Bruins’ five-day bye, and since it has ended — start slowly, gain traction, take control.
The significant difference was the presence of veteran defenseman Adam McQuaid, who played for the first time since sustaining a broken right fibula on Oct. 19. Although ready to play for weeks, there wasn’t room for McQuaid in the lineup until Kevan Miller was too sick to play on Wednesday.
The B’s were behind inside the first minute, after Habs rookie Jakub Jerabek spun away from Brad Marchand above the left circle, snapped the puck in the direction of Max Pacioretty outside the crease, and saw his first career goal carom off Zdeno Chara’s glove and past Rask after just 31 seconds.
The Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line got that goal back at 6:50.
Pastrnak’s 18th of the season, which tied him with Marchand for the team lead, came after he was taken down behind the Canadiens net, picked himself up and skated to the left circle, unnoticed. Marchand, on his knees to retrieve a puck in the slot, nudged it to Bergeron, who whipped it to Pastrnak for an easy one-timer.
Marchand, who has played eight fewer games than Pastrnak, broke that tie in the third, scoring his 19th goal in 35 games on a power play at 3:40. David Krejci’s empty-netter closed the scoring.
The Bruins got a break when they took the lead early in the second period.
Jake DeBrusk carried the puck up the right side in the neutral zone before feeding Krejci, who pulled up just inside the Canadiens’ blue line and hit Ryan Spooner coming into the zone. Spooner actually stick-handled into a poor shooting position and tried to make a backhand pass to net-driving defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, but the puck deflected off Jonathan Drouin’s skate and past Price at 2:37 to give the B’s a 2-1 lead.
The Bruins preserved that lead with a key penalty kill near the halfway mark. Defenseman Charlie McAvoy went off at 8:33 for holding, and Brandon Carlo, one of the Bruins’ three primary penalty-killing defensemen, followed McAvoy to the box at 9:24. McQuaid and captain Zdeno Chara helped the Bruins’ survive a 5-on-3 disadvantage that lasted for 1:09.
The Bruins played a video tribute to Julen during the first period, and Julien was given a standing ovation by the TD Garden crowd.
Mike Loftus writes for the Patriot Ledger of GateHouse Media.