Julien moved rising star Tyler Seguin onto a unit with David Krejci and Milan Lucic, and it produced the tying and winning goals on its first two shifts as the Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 on Wednesday night.

“We needed to create more scoring chances because we didn’t have many in the first two periods, so we tweaked the lines a bit and the guys responded well,” Julien said. The Bruins improved to 7-1-1 and maintained their hold on first place in the Northeast Division.

“That Krejci line’s been awesome for us but (Wednesday) they weren’t able to generate much, so I said, ‘Let’s move guys around here and give them a little spark,’ and it worked out,” Julien said. “Look at Siggy driving the net on that first goal.”

Seguin sneaked in front to take a pass from Krejci and lift it over Carey Price to tie the game only 14 seconds into the third period.

The speedy young center then slipped the puck to the left wing on a rush, and Lucic fed it in front. The onrushing Krejci got there just before Montreal center Tomas Plekanec and tipped it in at 2:05.

P.K. Subban scored his first goal of the season on a second-period power play for Montreal, which was shut down by Tuukka Rask while outshooting Boston 11-4 in the first.

The Canadiens (6-3-0) had their five-game home winning streak was snapped.

“We played well in the first period, but starting in the second, we kind of backed up,” said defenseman Andrei Markov, who picked up his ninth point in nine games. “We stopped playing our game.”

Boston outshot Montreal 23-22.

The Canadiens play Thursday night in Buffalo before facing the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

Julien called it the best game so far this season for Rask, who has built a 6-1-1 record as the starter while veteran Tim Thomas is on a self-assigned sabbatical.

Rask stopped Lars Eller on a breakaway 10 minutes into the game, and got a break in the second when Plekanec was in alone but lost control of the puck and shot it into the corner rather than at the net.

“He’s had the right attitude,” Julien said of his goaltender. “With the high expectations, he’s just doing his job.

“He’s a normal goaltender, which might be a surprise to a lot of people,” he said. “But he’s so easy going. There are no issues.”

The Krejci, Lucic and Nathan Horton line has been Boston’s best this season while Seguin went into the game in a slump with only one goal in the first eight games.

“I was feeling snake bitten, but I’m glad one went in and we pulled this one out,” Seguin said. “I feel I’ve been playing decently.

“I had a couple of goals called back. Things weren’t going in. But we got it going in the third,” he added.

The Canadiens did not allow the Bruins a shot on goal until the game was more than 11 minutes in, but solid saves from Rask kept it scoreless.

Subban broke the deadlock at 10:53 of the second with Lucic serving a high-sticking penalty.

The flamboyant defenseman took a pass from Markov, and saw his point shot go off Rich Peverley’s stick and past Rask. It was Subban’s first goal and third point in three games since he ended a holdout by signing a two-year contract.

The goal drew big applause from the Bell Centre crowd as Subban did the leg-lifted “Joel” pose in celebration.

It ended Boston’s string of 16 straight penalty kills to start the season.

Game notes

Price left the ice in a hurry during pregame warm-ups after he was hit in the groin area by Lars Eller’s shot, but was OK to play. … Prospect Blake Geoffrion, who fractured his skull in an AHL game at the Bell Centre during the lockout, says he feels better and will be examined by a doctor in Montreal on Thursday to see when he can resume training. … Montreal scratched Tomas Kaberle, Ryan White and Yannick Weber. … Boston was without Brad Marchand, Shawn Thornton and Daniel Paille because of injuries.

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Tyler Seguin’s goal on the first shot of the shootout was nullified because the item was thrown from the stands onto the ice toward New Jersey goalie Johan Hedberg.

So Seguin tried again — and scored again. Ilya Kovalchuk then tied it for the Devils.

After both teams failed on their next four tries, Brad Marchand scored the goal that gave the Bruins a 2-1 win Tuesday night when the final shot, by New Jersey’s Marek Zidlicky, was stopped by Tuukka Rask’s left pad.

“That’s a first,” Seguin said. “I’m still not sure what it was. Maybe a hot dog.”

One of the officials tossed it in the penalty box and had left before being asked exactly what it was.

“It looked yellow,” said Seguin, whose first shot went over Hedberg’s left arm and whose second cleared the goalie’s right arm.

His goal set the stage for Marchand’s game-winner between Hedberg’s pads. It gave the Bruins a 5-0-1 record for an Eastern Conference-best 11 points.

They also opened the 1970-71 season with 11 points, the last time they earned at least one in each of their first six games.

“We’ve played some pretty good hockey so far,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “And the games that weren’t quite as good as we should have been, we found a way to win. And to be a good team you’ve got to be able to do that.”

Marchand did, scoring the first shootout goal of his career.

“All I could hear was (Seguin) saying, `go high, go high,’ `’ he said, “but I just kind of blacked out. I don’t know what happened. … I’m serious. I blacked out.”

Nathan Horton’s goal with 4:05 left in the third period had forced overtime after David Clarkson scored on a power play at 8:30 of the second period.

But the game came down to a shootout, and the Devils led the NHL last season with 12 shootout wins.

“They got it this time,” Hedberg said. “I think it’s sort of a tossup when you get to a shootout.”

The Devils remained unbeaten in regulation but fell to 3-0-2.

“We made a couple of mistakes at the end and we’ve got to control the puck a little bit better,” New Jersey’s Patrik Elias said. “They have big guys up front and in the back, too, and it’s tough to get some opportunities to make some plays on that space.”

The victory was Boston’s second in two nights in which it took the lead late in the game. In Monday night’s 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, David Krejci scored the tiebreaking goal on a pass from rookie defenseman Dougie Hamilton with 1:50 left. Seguin added an empty-net goal with eight seconds remaining.

The Devils were coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to Montreal in which they erased a 3-1 Canadiens lead in the third period.

“Our game in Montreal was a little inconsistent,” New Jersey coach Peter DeBoer said. “Tonight we were solid for 65 minutes.”

Clarkson’s fourth goal of the season came on a 50-footer from the left after he skated with the puck from the middle of the blue line.

Travis Zajac crossed in front of Rask, screening the shot that went in the upper right corner of the net. That made the Bruins the last team to allow a power-play goal this season after 23 successful penalty kills.

Clarkson had another scoring bid early in the third period when he fired the puck from the left circle. But Rask gloved it after stopping it with his chest while Krejci was in the penalty box for interfering with Hedberg.

Horton’s scoring play started when Krejci brought the puck out of his own zone and passed it to Milan Lucic, who carried it over the left side of the Devils’ blue line.

Lucic passed it to Krejci in the middle and he immediately passed it to Horton, who shot a 20-footer from the right past Hedberg, playing for the first time this season after Martin Brodeur started the Devils’ other four games.

“You’re down a goal, you’re down two goals, it doesn’t matter,” Horton said. “You just work hard and fight back.”

Rask returned for the Bruins after sitting out Monday night’s win, the first game he missed this season.

Game notes

Bruins LW Chris Bourque, son of retired Boston star Ray Bourque, turned 27 Tuesday. … Kovalchuk has 41 points in 41 games against the Bruins after going scoreless. … For the Devils, 30-year-old Matt Anderson played in his first NHL game after being called up from Albany of the AHL, where he had seven goals and 13 assists in 39 games this season.

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