BOSTON — Morgan Geekie fooled the goalie, the goal judge and the referee and gave the Bruins their first third-period comeback for the season.
Boston hadn’t won a game all year when they trailed after the second intermission, but they scored twice in the final frame to beat the Canadiens, 4-3, on Saturday at TD Garden.
Geekie’s second goal of the game and 100th of his career came in unusual fashion. He ripped a shot from above the left faceoff circle. Both the referee and the goal judge thought it deflected out of play. But the Bruins immediately started pointing to the back of the net, where the puck had wedged itself between the twine and the base of the goal.
After a moment of review, the referees declared it a good goal and it turned out to be the winner.
It was a night of good fortune as the Bruins caught a key break when Nikita Zadorov, who needed to be helped off the ice with a leg injury in the second period, returned for the third.
Boston (30-20-2) is at New York on Monday.
It was Cole Caufield Supreme as the score ping-ponged back and forth on the power play through the first two periods when the Bruins were slow out of the gate.
Caufield scored his first goal at even strength for the only goal of the first period before the extra-man bonanza took over in the second.
Viktor Arvidsson scored on the power play to make it 1-1 less than two minutes into the second, but Caufield answered on the power play to make it 2-1, just under six minutes later.
Geekie finished a pretty pass by David Pastrnak on the power play to even the score at 2-2 again with 10:14 left in the second.
Caulfied finished his hat trick on th epower play with 6:31 left to make it 3-2 after the third.
But the Bruins took over early in the third. Fraser Minten tied the game with a backhander from the slot, 6:05 into the third, setting up the final sequence.
Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves to earn the win.
