BOSTON – The Boston Bruins entered the third period of Tuesday night’s game against the St. Louis Blues trailing 2-0. But they didn’t hang their heads or think back to that shotless third period that doomed them in overtime against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.

Instead, the Bruins focused on the task at hand and put forth one of their best 20 minutes of hockey this season. Boston scored three times in the final frame of the game, with David Pastrnak scoring the game winner with just under two minutes remaining.

“We stayed patient,” Pastrnak said of the win. “You could feel there was a conviction, and we were really one jump away.”

It’s the kind of win the struggling Bruins believe could be the catalyst for an early-season turnaround.

David Pastrnak’s big night

Pastrnak is Boston’s scoring leader this season, but had gone seven games without a goal until Tuesday night. His game-winning score was just part of his big night for the Bruins.

Pastrnak got the B score started early in the third when he cleared the puck away from St. Louis’ Colton Parayko in the neutral zone. Pastrnak set up Morgan Geekie with a one-timer for the centerman’s first goal of the season. It was Pastrnak’s ninth helper of the year.

The Bruins tied it a few minutes later when Brad Marchand retrieved the puck from a pile of rubble and fed it to Charlie McAvoy at the blue line, who fired it through Jordan Binnington at 9:15. That set up Pastrnak’s drama in the final minutes.

Pastrnak gave Boston the lead on a nice one-timer feed from McAvoy, fired by Binnington from the left spot with just 1:47 left in the game. It was Pasrtnak’s seventh goal of the season and a game shy of his 10th shot of the night.

“What a crazy change it was,” Pastrnak said. “It was a couple of looks that we had. Obviously McAvoy and Mason (Lohrei) were doing their thing and kind of buzzing around. They collapsed and the puck bounced to Charlie and kicked to him. It was up to me and I shot it as hard as I could.”

Will the comeback win boost Boston?

The Bruins could have easily wrapped it up again. They were 0-7-0 this season when trailing after two periods. Opponents outscored them 16-5 as the Bruins entered third place on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

But the team turned up the pressure on the Blues defense in the third, peppering Binnington with 11 shots in the period. Boston is now 8-7-1 on the season, and Jim Montgomery earned some job security with Tuesday night’s win.

The head coach took great pleasure when a reporter asked if the win would “stimulate” his team and inspire that kind of play every night.

“It is galvanizing. You can tell by the energy in our room after the game,” Montgomery said. “We had a lot of energy this morning; players were excited to play. We started the match well. They scored some nice power play goals in the second and we fell behind, but we talked about going at it for 60 minutes and playing the right way.

“Even though we made a few mistakes in the third – because it’s a game of mistakes – we played the right way,” added Montgomery, who was happy to see his team score a few “fat goals” to balance the score. game.

The Bruins see an opportunity to build on Tuesday’s win, but they must take advantage of what’s in front of them.

“You can really build on these things,” McAvoy said. “You’ve got to do the right things going forward. But there are a few times a year when you win a game like this or something like this happens, you come back and find a way like we did tonight and you can really build off of that.

“You have to earn them and we did that tonight,” McAvoy added. “We have to do the right things in the future. But this can certainly make a difference.”

“You learn through adversity,” Montgomery said. “Despite the fact that we are 4-1-1 in our last six, it doesn’t feel like it… When you get a game like tonight and realize that if you stay in the moment, good things happen. Believe in the process and just worry about the future.”

The Bruins play the 9-5-0 Stars in Dallas on Thursday night before returning home to host the Blues on Saturday afternoon.