MONTREAL — Jeremy Swayman stopped 26 shots for his fifth consecutive victory and the Boston Bruins overcame the loss of defenseman Charlie McAvoy to a mouth injury to beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Saturday night in a heated game.

The Bruins improved to 12-8-0, winning for the eighth time in nine games. Boston and Montreal began the day tied with Ottawa for first place in the Atlantic Division.

McAvoy was hit in the mouth by a slap shot midway through the second period.

With the Canadiens on a power play, Noah Dobson’s one-timer appeared to deflect off Boston forward Mark Kastelic before hitting McAvoy. McAvoy immediately covered his face and dropped to the ice, while a team doctor rushed to help.

McAvoy then hurried to the dressing room after bleeding on the ice. Teammate Nikita Zadorov was seen trying to retrieve lost teeth.

Zadorov and Montreal’s Jayden Struble fought off the game’s opening faceoff as the Bell Centre erupted. Four minutes later, Canadiens bruiser Arber Xhekaj dropped the gloves with Bruins forward Tanner Jeannot.

Viktor Arvidsson, Marat Khusnutdinov and Mason Lohrei scored for Boston. David Pastrnak added two assists to become the third player in Bruins history to have an 11-game points streak against the Canadiens, joining Bobby Orr and Herb Cain.

Cole Caufield and Jake Evans scored for Montreal. The Canadiens fell to to 10-6-2 with their third straight loss on home ice and fifth in six games.

Sam Montembeault made 20 saves.

After the early fights, Khusnutdinov opened the scoring at 8:38 of the first. Evans replied with a short-handed goal with 7:48 left in the period.

Lohrei scored two minutes into the second period with a shot through a screen from the point, and Arvidsson made it 3-1 by finishing a between-the-legs feed from Pavel Zacha on a power play.

Caufield scored his team-leading 13th goal with 1:16 left in the second.

Up next

Bruins: Host Carolina on Monday night

Canadiens: At Columbus on Monday night