Montreal, QC (Sports Network) - Tom Kostopoulos registered a goal and an assist, as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins, 4-1, in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals series at the Bell Centre.

Sergei Kostitsyn, Andrei Kostitsyn and Bryan Smolinski also scored for the top-seeded Canadiens, who continued their dominance of the Bruins. Montreal won all eight meetings during the regular season and outscored its Northeast Division rival by a 39-16 margin. Carey Price made 17 saves in his playoff debut.

"It's a good start," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "We surprised a lot of people, including ourselves, but the playoffs are a different time. You never know how the players are going to react. There were a few question marks, but we answered it pretty quickly. We played really well against them (Bruins) all year, but it's a different season now. Our guys were nervous at the start because they hadn't played in four days, but they played with a lot of confidence and overcame that nervousness. Getting two quick goals certainly helped matters. We did a lot of good things, but they will adjust before we play them again on Saturday."

Shane Hnidy provided the offense for the eighth-seeded Bruins, while Tim Thomas allowed four goals on 32 shots in defeat.

"We're a better team than that," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "The goals they scored were made by mistakes in front of our goalie. We were nervous at the start. It was their third and fourth lines that outplayed us. We didn't win the puck battles. We have to play better as a group and as individuals."

Game 2 of this series is set for Saturday evening in Montreal.

Montreal jumped out to a 1-0 lead 34 seconds into the contest, as Sergei Kostitsyn jammed home a rebound at the right side of the net. The Canadiens lit the lamp again less than two minutes later when Andrei Kostitsyn one-timed Tomas Plekanec's cross-ice pass from the right boards in behind Thomas.

The Bruins cut the deficit in half at the 8:34 mark of the first period. Phil Kessel dropped the puck for Andrew Ference at the left point, whose drive was deflected down low by Hnidy.

Montreal took full advantage of the Bruins sloppiness in their own end to reestablish a two-goal lead. Mike Komisarek, who returned to the lineup after missing the final seven games of the regular season with a hip injury, uncoiled a slap shot from the right point that Thomas turned aside, but he couldn't control the rebound. After the puck bounced off bodies in front, Smolinski gathered the puck in the slot and fired a backhander that eluded the Bruins netminder at the 5:16 mark of the second period.

Kostopoulos made it 4-1 at 7:24 of the third. Maxim Lapierre threw the puck out from behind the goal to Kostopoulos, who rifled a shot past Thomas.

Zdeno Chara and Marco Sturm were called for penalties with 3:50 remaining in regulation, effectively killing any chance of a comeback.