THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL -- It was old-time Canadiens-Bruins hockey -- shots, goals and fisticuffs -- and Montreal came out on top.

Seven different scorers helped the Canadiens to a 7-4 victory over Boston in a wild and sometimes nasty encounter on Saturday night.

The Canadiens outshot the Bruins 52-36 -- their first game of 50-plus shots since April 1, 1996 against Buffalo -- and posted their sixth straight win over Boston, including three this season.

"It was good for the game and the fans. They really got into it," said Montreal's Tom Kostopoulos, whose team was beaten 4-1 in Buffalo on Friday night.

Kostopoulos, Saku Koivu, Andrei Kostitsyn, Guillaume Latendresse, Roman Hamrlik, Mike Komisarek and Alex Kovalev scored for Montreal (11-5-3).

Glen Murray, with two, Zdeno Chara and Marco Sturm scored for Boston (9-7-2), which ended a two-game winning run.

But most of the post-game talk was about the fights that broke out after Montreal took a 6-3 lead in the third period and little-used Jeremy Reich sped into the crease to trip Canadiens rookie goalie Carey Price.

Moments later, big defenceman Mark Stuart pounded Kostitsyn and Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau had to be pulled back by assistant Kirk Muller from a shouting match with Boston coach Claude Julien at the benches.

"Those are things I don't like -- seeing Stuart jump Kostitsyn -- but it's part of the game," said Carbonneau. "Emotions were high, things were said.

"I've got to defend my team and Claude has to defend his."

Julien, fired as Canadiens coach two seasons ago, said Kostitsyn started it by spearing Stuart. And he made reference to the two teams' last meeting on Nov. 8, when Boston accused Montreal's Francis Bouillon of causing a concussion to Aaron Ward with an elbow.

"Kostitsyn's not a fighter, but I didn't stand up on the bench and accuse Carbonneau of sending Bouillon to elbow Ward, so I think it's just a matter of, you take care of your business and we'll take care of ours," said Julien. .

"I don't think it had to do with the last game. It was just emotions running high. It started with a spear from Kostitsyn that got Stuart to fight him and got their bench riled up. We're not going to walk away. We'll stand up for ourselves and that's what we did." .

Chara, who was pestered into three minors earlier in the game by Montreal checker Steve Begin, was slapped with 19 minutes in penalties with only 5:34 left to play after elbowing Kovalev's head into the glass, then instigating a fight with Latendresse.

The linesmen intervened before the towering Chara could do any serious damage to Latendresse.

"He was probably looking for me, but he got the wrong Frenchman," Begin joked about the incident.

Then Kostopoulos, who had earlier fought Andrew Alberts, got an instigator penalty and a misconduct for challenging Stuart.

It made for a nervy atmosphere on the ice, said Koivu.

"We got some power play time and it feels good to score in those situations, but when you're out there, you can feel the emotions are high and there's a lot of frustration," he said. "You have to watch out for yourself and be aware of things.

"When you take a three-goal lead, things like that a happen. We're just happy no one got hurt." .

It had the sell-out crowd of 21,273 in a roar, but they were already well entertained as several players broke scoring slumps and others were stopped by busy goalies Price, who improved to 5-1-1 as a rookie, and Tim Thomas, who started an 11th straight game for Boston.

The action was end-to-end from the outset -- unusual for two teams that like to trap in the neutral zone-- and each team scored in the opening 3:27.

Koivu ended a six-game goal drought when he banged in Michael Ryder's rebound on a power play at 2:40.

After Kovalev rang a shot off the goalpost, the Bruins had an odd-man rush and Marc Savard set up Murray for a medium-speed shot that fooled Price. It was only the second goal of the season for Murray and his first in 14 games.

Kyle Chipchura's checking set up Kostopoulos for a shorthanded goal 1:19 into the second frame but Chara got it back with his first of the season on a bullet drive from the right side at 3:11.

Kostitsyn picked the top corner on a rush at 4:49 on a power play but Sturm answered with his own on a man advantage at 10:43 on a one-timer from point blank in front of Price.

Latendresse, with his first in six games, had two cracks at the puck at the side of the net to put Montreal ahead 4-3 with 2:30 left in the period.

Hamrlik banked a shot in off Aaron Ward 4:23 into the third and Komisarek's point shot beat Thomas at 10:15.

Murray got his second of the game at 11:07 with a quick shot off a faceoff but Kovalev got it back on a power play at 14:12.

Notes -- Patrice Brisebois sat out and Josh Gorges played for Montreal... Bruins defenceman Andrew Ference came back from an upper body injury for one game and now is out again with a sprained knee.