New Year's Day 2016 belonged to Mike Condon. The young Montreal Canadiens netminder and Massachusetts native, playing in place of injured Vezina and Hart Trophy-winning Habs goaltender Carey Price, wasn't tested much early on in the 2016 NHL Winter Classic, but did enough over 60 minutes to pull out the 5-1 victory for the visiting Canadiens over the Boston Bruins.
A hard-earned Paul Byron marker, which followed an early goal from David Desharnais, the product of some smart play by Montreal's Dale Weise, proved to be all the cushion Condon needed to cement a victory for the Canadiens in the first NHL game of 2016. Weise would eventually leave the game in the second period after a big hit from Boston's Kevin Millar.
The ice surface, said to be "dangerous" and "slushy" on New Year's Eve Day, according to both Canadiens and Bruins players, didn't seem to be much of an issue once the game got underway. NHL officials likely would have postponed the start of the game had the sun been shining as it had the day before, but some cloud cover kept the sun at bay and ensured the ice surface wasn't quite as "soft" as the day prior.
Some strong work in the Boston zone late in the second turned into a phenomenal goal by Brendan Gallagher, in his first game back for the Habs following an extended injury absence. Max Pacioretty batted a cross-ice pass into the air and then into the crease where Gallagher whacked it out of mid-air and past Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask, giving the Canadiens a 3-0 lead.
Boston finally got on the board with about four minutes gone in the third when Matt Beleskey redirected an Adam McQuad shot from the point, pumping some life into the 67,246 collected in Foxborough, MA.
But Pacioretty extended the Canadiens' lead to three again on a break out midway through the third, putting Boston back into desperation mode. One more Canadien's goal pushed the score to 5-1, an insurmountable lead for a Bruins team that has played surprisingly well this season despite a plethora of offseason changes, but fell well short of expectations in front of their home crowd on New Year's Day.
