David Pastrnak’s OT winner lifts Bruins over Calgary, 4-3

The Bruins enjoyed their most dominant win on Saturday over Vancouver. And on Tuesday, they grabbed their best character victory of the season.

The Bruins shook off a bad opening 21:21 and overcame a pair of two-goal deficits to beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3, in overtime at the Saddledome.

With 38 seconds left in OT and looking like it was headed to the shootout, David Pastrnak ripped a wrist shot that beat Dustin Wolf for the winner.

Considering this game almost got away from them, this was a very good W.

The Bruins were not good in the first period, losing battles and spending far too much time in their own zone, but they escaped unscathed.

It didn’t last long into the second period.

The Flames scored twice in the first 1:21 of the period, both on slot shots. First, Matt Coronato gave Calgary a 1-0 lead 54 seconds in. Charlie McAvoy’s pass from behind the net up the boards hit one of the referees and Calgary controlled it. When the puck went to Coronato in the slot, Nikita Zadorov was slow to cover and Coronato ripped it by Jeremy Swayman.

Then just 25 seconds later, Nazem Kadri slipped his coverage off the boards and beat Swayman with another high quality shot.

Considering how quickly games got away from the B’s in Winnipeg and Seattle, that was enough for Joe Sacco to call a timeout.

That did slow the Flames down a bit and, at 6:31, the B’s cut their deficit in half. After the first period, Elias Lindholm gave a harsh assessment of the B’s play.

“It was brutal,” he told NESN in the first intermission. “Can’t get much worse than this.”

Unfortunately for the B’s, it did get worse. But it was Lindholm who got the B’s on the board. The former Flame, who got a nice ovation at the first TV timeout. (Former Flame Nikita Zadorov, who had requested a trade, was greeted with boos when he touched the puck), blocked a shot in the defensive zone the left wing. He she chased it all the way down on the right side and, off the rush, he somehow got the puck through Dustin Wolf for his fourth goal of the year, first in 12 games.

That finally put some life in the B’s legs. They had numerous chances to get the equalizer, none better than on a 2-on-1 when Brad Marchand sent Lindholm in all alone but Wolf denied him. Morgan Geekie also had a partial break-in that was thwarted.

At 17:19, the Flames got their two-goal lead back. Off the rush, Conor Zary’s shot was blocked by Brandon Carlo, but the puck continued forward along the left side of the crease and Ryan Lomberg was able to tuck it shortside by Swayman.

That was disheartening in the moment, because the B’s had gotten to their game and were the better team since the Sacco timeout.

But the B’s kept scratching back and pulled to within one again at 4:14 on a fortunate bounce of their own. Mason Lohrei’s stick broke on a blue line shot but it went right to Andrew Peeke down low. Wolf stopped Peeke’s shot but Geekie was right at the top of the crease for the put-back, his sixth of the season.

They finally tied it at 6:51. Lindolm sent a long cross-ice pass to Marchand in the neutral zone and the captain went on the attack. His progress to the net was cut off so he circled around and found Marc McLaughlin, who fanned on his first shot but followed it up for his second goal in as many games.

The B’s got the first power play when Joel Hanley hauled down Lindholm on a good scoring chance but the B’s could not capitalize. In fact, they needed a toe save from Swayman on Jakob Pelletier’s shorthanded bid to keep it even.