BOSTON – The Vancouver Canucks wouldn’t let the Bruins push them around anymore and left with something they couldn’t get in last year’s finals — a win in Boston.

Less than four minutes into their first game between the teams since the Bruins won their first Stanley Cup in 39 years, at least five Canucks surrounded and jostled Boston’s Shawn Thornton near the Vancouver bench after he came to the aid of a teammate who had been hit.

And two minutes later, the Canucks scored the first of their four power-play goals on their way to a 4-3 win Saturday.

“I think it makes a statement to the rest of the league that we’re back and we’re looking forward to getting back to where we were,” Vancouver goalie Corey Schneider said.

The Canucks are second in the NHL with 55 points and the Bruins are third with 53.

Boston’s Milan Lucic drew a game misconduct for leaving the bench to join in the altercation, but Bruins Coach Claude Julien insisted he had taken the ice on a legal line change.

“I’m not blaming (the referees). They’re in the middle of a scrum there,” Julien said. “What’s unfortunate is that we lost a pretty good player early in the game.”

The NHL said after the game that the game misconduct to Lucic was rescinded.

The league said in a statement “a video review of the incident revealed that Lucic did not leave the bench to join or start an altercation but rather had entered the ice legally over the boards and was about to step back onto the bench through the door when he changed course and joined a scrum.”

Vancouver Coach Alain Vigneault, whose team was outmuscled in the Stanley Cup finals, thought the Bruins were still too physical.

“Our guys played whistle to whistle,” he said. “It’s hard to play that way when the other team gets two or three extra (hits) in after the whistle.”

That may be a spillover from last year’s ill will.

Boston’s Nathan Horton missed the last four games of the finals after suffering a concussion in Game 3 on an open-ice hit by Aaron Rome. The Bruins were the much more physical team, pushing stars Henrik and Daniel Sedin around with little response.

“Let’s not kid ourselves here. These are teams that don’t like each other,” Julien said. “I think the buildup from last year is still there.”

Last year, Boston fans chanted “Luongo! Luongo!” about Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo, who struggled much of the seven-game series and was pulled in the first period of Boston’s 5-2 win in Game 6.

They did it again just 1:55 into Saturday’s game even though Schneider played the entire game.

The Canucks, who have the NHL’s best power play, had a five-on-three advantage after the scrum that resulted in nine penalties, and Ryan Kesler gave them a 1-0 lead at 5:41 of the period with his 11th goal of the season.

Brad Marchand and Rich Peverley responded for Boston. Alexander Burrows tied it at 15:21 of the second period and Henrik Sedin put the Canucks ahead to stay at 19:47 after Marchand was given a game misconduct and a clipping penalty for upending Sami Salo with a low hit.

“It (also) happened last year in the playoffs,” Henrik Sedin said.

Vancouver’s Cody Hodgson and Boston’s David Krejci scored in the first two minutes of the third period.

“We knew they were going to come out hard and so did we,” Boston’s Chris Kelly said. “There’s grown men out there playing hockey and emotions were high.”

The Canucks did their scoring against Tim Thomas, their nemesis in the Cup finals.