CBC is taking on a whole new meaning for the Boston Bruins — Can't Beat the Canadiens.

For the seventh time this season and 10th straight going back to last year, the Bruins were taken down by Montreal, this time 4-2 on Thursday night at Boston.

Montreal's Chris Higgins looks for a rebound on Boston's Tim Thomas during the Habs' 4-1 victory on Thursday night.
(Winslow Townson/Associated Press)

It was a big-time victory for the visitors who had dropped three of their last five coming in but used the two points to move back into first overall in the Eastern Conference, a point up on idle New Jersey.

The Devils have two games in hand.

Boston remains at 83 points and in seventh place, one up on Philadelphia and two up on the hard charging Buffalo Sabres.

Montreal and Boston play again Saturday night on CBC, 7 p.m. ET.

Alexei Kovalev with two gorgeous goals, Michael Ryder and Sergei Kostitsyn scored for the Habs, while Mark Stuart and Dennis Wideman replied for Boston.

The one-sided nature of things lately has the Bruins confused.

"The onus is on us to change this," said defenceman Aaron Ward. "It sounds bad to say, but I thought we were better against them tonight.

"Shame on us if we are not ready for them on Saturday."

All this season fans have been talking about how this Canadiens' team is reminding them of the old days and three of the four goals were right out of the late 1970's playbook.

A Gallivan special

Kovalev opened the scoring at 8:20 of the second period on an effort the late Danny Gallivan would have loved to call from the Canadiens' broadcast booth.

Coming over the blue-line on the left side and with the huge Zdeno Chara in front of him, Kovalev used a perfect "Savardian Spinarama" to turn 250 degrees, cut directly across the Boston zone and put a backhand on Tim Thomas.

The goaltender should have been able to snare it in his stomach but instead the puck rolled between his legs for a 1-0 lead.

Kovalev was back five minutes later with another highlight reel special that began deep in his own zone.

Ragging the puck up through centre, the right winger turned on the jets to fly by P.J. Axelsson and then split Chara and Wideman to race in on Thomas.

A backhand through the goalie's legs again and it was 2-0 as Kovalev notched his 33rd of the season.

Those goals left coach Guy Carbonneau more than impressed.

"If he [Kovalev] doesn't have any votes for MVP, I will be really upset," he said. "We are at the top of the conference and he is a big part of it."

Bruins fight back 

But there's nothing like a bouncing puck to change things in a hurry as Price found out 27 seconds after the Habs' second goal.

Faced with a knuckling shot from the blue-line by Boston defenceman Mark Stuart, the Montreal goaltender watched the disk sail by and it was 2-1. 

That score held up into the third period when Montreal regained a two-goal lead just under seven minutes.

Guillaume Latendresse had the puck at one side of the Boston net from where he bounced one off the end boards behind goaltender Tim Thomas that went straight to Saku Koivu's stick on the other side.

Montreal's captain finished the triangle play by hitting Michael Ryder in front who buried the puck for a 3-1 lead. It was Ryder's 14th of a season that has seen him struggle at times.

Kostitsyn made it 4-1 on a pass from Kovalev who stopped a puck behind the net, changed its direction and then put it out to the forward for a shot on Thomas. Kostitsyn followed right up with a poke at the goalie's pad that pushed the puck across the line.

Wideman had a late marker on Price to close out the scoring.

The two teams meet again on Saturday night in Montreal.