BOSTON – It certainly wasn’t pretty at times, but the Bruins earned an overtime victory against the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.

The Bruins and Flames traded goals in the opening period, but then Boston scored twice in the second frame to take a 3–1 lead in the final 20 minutes of regulation time.

Calgary didn’t fold. In the third period they pulled away with two goals of their own to force extra time. The Black and Gold were determined not to lose the extra point and Brad Marchand scored the winning goal with 20 seconds left of three-on-three play.

“We stuck with it,” Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm said. “Obviously we don’t want to give up a 3-1 lead in the third, but we found a way to win a hockey game and that’s difficult in this league. So I’ll try to focus on the positives here.

Lindholm opened the scoring for the Bruins with a first-period strike from newly reunited Czech buddies David Pastrnark and Pavel Zacha.

“I feel really good about my game,” Lindholm said. “It’s fun to be put in situations to succeed and that makes it fun for me. Feel that reward and of course: scoring a goal is always a good feeling.”

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery praised Lindholm not only for the goal, but for his overall performance in the game.

“I thought Hampus was really skating. I thought he was sharp tonight,” Montgomery said. “The great thing about Hampus playing very well, and that goal is a perfect example of that, is that he moves his feet in the neutral zone, goes north and jumps into the attacking zone to support the play. That way it is easier for the defenders to be discovered.”

Not only did Pastrnak and Zacha connect on the Lindholm goal, but the duo also helped generate some of the Bruins’ best scoring chances and Zacha scored his first five-on-five goal of the season.

“They played really well,” Montgomery said. “I thought that line was our best offensive line.”

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Here are more notes on Thursday’s Bruins-Flames game:

— Marchand now has 21 career overtime wins, which is the most in franchise history and third-most among all NHL players, behind Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. 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).

— Zacha’s second goal of the season was his 300th NHL point. He joined linemate Pastrnak, Tomas Hertl and Ondrej Palat as the fourth active player born in the Czech Republic to reach 300 points.

— Cole Koepke joined Charlie Coyle and Matt Poitras on the third line and scored his fourth goal of the season to extend the Bruins lead to 3-1 in the third period. Coyle earned his first assist of the season when he set up Koepke’s tally.

“As long as I play the right way and create chances, get chances, that’s what I worry about. … I don’t really worry about individual things,” Coyle said. “I want to play the right way for my team, make sure I’m on the right side of the puck, pick my spots when I need to go and find that balance as well.”

— The Bruins will look to build on the overtime victory when they host former teammate Linus Ullmark and the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

The matchup could see Boston’s former formidable goaltending tandem – Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman – face each other for the first time since the former was traded to the Senators in the offseason, or Ullmark could potentially face the goaltender who Bruins received in the exchange – Korpisalo.

TD Garden’s Puck Drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM ET and you can watch the game plus an hour of pre- and post-game coverage on NESN.