BOSTON — While the vast majority of New England’s sports fanatics were counting down the hours to Sunday’s AFC Championship game involving their favorite football team in Denver, the local hockey team put forth one of their better showings of the season on a frigid Saturday night against their hated rivals.

The Bruins checked off a lot of boxes in taking down the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3, before the usual sellout of 17,850. To wit: 

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