If nothing else, the 2-0 Bruins have been clutch

The Boston Bruins did not play especially well for much of Friday night's game in Winnipeg, and found themselves trailing 3-2 late as a result.

But when it got down to crunch time, the Bruins found a way to break through, force overtime, and then get the 4-3 win to improve to 2-0-0 on the young season.

On Tuesday, it took until the last few minutes for the Bruins to decide their season opener, with a 0-0 stalemate turning into a 3-0 victory in just 1:15 of game action thanks to goals from Fraser Minten, JJ Peterka and Mark Kastelic.

On Friday, they waited until there was 1:38 left in regulation to tie the game. With the extra attacker on, Elias Lindholm won an offensive-zone faceoff back to Mason Lohrei, who then slid the puck to David Pastrnak. Pastrnak waited for a lane to open and then fired a slap pass to the front that Lindholm tipped past Jets goalie Stuart Skinner.

In overtime, it was Pastrnak on the setup again. This time he held the puck in the neutral zone as he waited for a speeding Peterka to catch up. Once he did, Pastrnak floated a pass into space and Peterka raced in alone on Skinner for a five-hole finish and his second goal in as many games with Boston.

Pastrnak, Peterka and Lindholm being the late heroes perfectly encapsulates the way the Bruins flipped their fortunes in this one. Those three started the game together as the Bruins' top line again, but really had nothing going on for the first two periods. A defensive-zone miscommunication between Pastrnak and Lindholm helped set up the Jets' first goal.

Coach Marco Sturm broke them up in the third period, moving Morgan Geekie up with Pastrnak and Lindholm while dropping Peterka to the second line with Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt.

The Bruins did start to create more chances in the third period, but it still took until the extra-attacker situation to break through for a goal – which, coincidentally, came with Pastrnak, Lindholm and Peterka all back on the ice together.

"Just stick to it," Peterka told NESN after the game. "I think we just had to believe that we can tie, we can win that game. And throughout the whole game, I think that's how we played."

Prior to the top guys' two late goals, the Bruins' highlight in this one was James Hagens' first career goal. It came late in the first period and put Boston up 2-1. After some good offensive-zone work from Marat Khusnutdinov, Hagens went to the front of the net and found himself staring at a half-empty net as he buried a rebound off a Nikita Zadorov shot.

The finish may have been easy, but Hagens was where he needed to be. He had also done some harder work earlier in the shift when he won a 1-on-1 battle in the defensive zone to help get the puck out. After a fairly quiet opener, Hagens was one of the Bruins' best and most consistent performers in this one.

"That's a great memory," Sturm said of Hagens' goal during his postgame interview on NESN. "That's something he will never forget. I think today he even got the belt as the player of the game. He should be very proud."

In net, Jeremy Swayman wasn't quite as dominant as he was Tuesday, but he still made some great saves to keep the Bruins in the game, especially throughout a very sloppy first two periods. He was screened by Elias Lindholm on one of the Winnipeg goals, another deflected right in front of him, and the third was a power-play tally off a net-front scramble.

The Bruins are right back at it Saturday night in Minnesota. Sturm has not yet named his starting goalie for that one, so Swayman going back-to-back seems to at least be a possibility. More likely, though, is that Michael DiPietro will get his first start as a Bruin, and his first start in the NHL since Jan. 23, 2022, when he was with the Vancouver Canucks.