Why the Bruins were extra motivated to beat the Jets

BOSTON — Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said he didn’t hear anyone talking about Dec. 22 before the game, but still he felt it.

On that night in Southern Manitoba, the Jets dealt Boston its third straight and the worst defeat in a four-game losing streak, 5-1.

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The Jets outshot, outhit, out-faceoffed and straight-up outplayed the Bruins that night.

“They embarrassed us the last time at Winnipeg,” Montgomery said.

Exactly a month later, the Bruins and Jets met again at TD Garden on Monday. Montgomery was confident going in that his team would answer the bell.

“We have a lot of proud guys who’ve represented the Bruins for a long time in a good way. I think the opportunity to get back at them was something that was motivating to them,” he said. “It’s something that’s part of the culture here.”

The Bruins proved him right. They paid back the defeat by snapping the Jets’ 13-game streak of allowing no more than two goals and their 34-game streak of not more than three. They scored two in the first and two in the third, including an empty-net goal to win 4-1.

“That was a game plan of ours. We don’t like losing twice in a row. The momentum we had from last game and the start of this homestand was something we wanted to continue,” said Jeremy Swayman, whose 21 saves were critical. “As you saw from the first to the last whistle, excellent Bruins hockey. Really special stuff we can build on.”

While it wasn’t as physical as a playoff game is likely to be, for 54 minutes it was low-scoring and tight. After dropping nine goals on the hapless Habs on Saturday, this game demanded more.

“That’s playoff hockey to be honest,” said Jake DeBrusk who added a critical short-handed goal late to seal the win. “It’s probably not as physical or intense, but tight checking and low scoring is what you’re going to see when it counts. Anytime you can get any ground in terms of confidence from winning these type of games it really helps everybody in the group.”

Montgomery agreed.

“It was nice. We’ve had a lot of games here recently where we’ve been scoring goals,” Montgomery said. “It was nice to have a 2-1 lead going into the third and extend the lead again.”

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