BOSTON – Things could have gotten ugly for the Boston Bruins after they surrendered a two-goal lead to the Calgary Flames in the third period.

Luckily for the Black and Gold, their captain Brad Marchand scored the winning goal in overtime with just 20 seconds left in the extra frame to seal the 4-3 victory for the Bruins.

“He’s really good one-on-one,” Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm said. “…He’s like a pit bull. Like flesh and bones, it never leaves it alone. He wins his battle. He’s hungry and that’s how you score three-on-three in this competition.”

Marchand was awarded a penalty just nine seconds into the third period. With the feisty forward in the box, the Flame capitalized on a power play goal, cutting the lead to 3-2.

“It’s a bad punishment to take. Bad time of the game,” Marchand said. “The start of the period in such a situation usually determines how your team will play throughout the period. It’s just a bad punishment to take, so I definitely wanted to redeem myself. That doesn’t make it good, but it’s good that we got the two points.”

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery noticed that Marchand was playing “desperately” from the start, and not just at the start of the third period.

“I thought he was desperate the whole game,” Montgomery said. “He had a few shots in the post. I thought he was at the top of his game. I thought he skated well. His ability to recover and keep going, his second and third tries, it should be contagious for our team because he is a great leader.”

Although Marchand’s goal secured Boston’s win, he credited Elias Lindholm’s tenacity on the puck with allowing the game to develop.

“He did a great job chasing the puck after the faceoff,” Marchand explained. “I think he started jumping on the D a little bit and jumped on it. I did a great job winning that battle and bringing it to the forefront, and the rest is history.”

Marchand now has 21 career overtime wins, the most in franchise history. The game winner was the 79th of his career and puts him third in Bruins history behind only Johnny Bucyk (88) and Patrice Bergeron (81).