Last week, the Boston Bruins were twice taken to overtime in TD Garden but could only once find the late heroics to pull out the victory.

Only five days after dispatching the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 in Raleigh, N.C. on Monday night, the Bruins welcomed the Hurricanes to Boston on Saturday in a game in which Boston earned a 3-2 overtime victory. Although the game started poorly for Boston, the Bruins battled back to maintain their spot atop the Eastern Conference standings.

Just five minutes into the first period, the Hurricanes secured the lead on a power-play opportunity. Defenseman Andrej Sekera sent a wrist shot through traffic in front of the net and past Bruins goalie Chad Johnson to give Carolina an early 1-0 lead.

Defenseman Zdeno Chara netted his fourth goal of the season on a rebound from a shot by left-winger Milan Lucic to tie the game at 1-1 just 10 minutes later.

"We tied the game and it's always nice to get a power-play goal," Chara said. "It gives your team a little bit of momentum and jump."

Boston used the momentum of the power-play goal to grab a lead in the second period.

Forward Riley Smith put home a rebound with just over six minutes left in the period. However, the Bruins could not maintain the lead, coughing up a shorthanded goal in the third period to tie the game at 2-2.

As the Bruins and Hurricanes headed to overtime, Boston coach Claude Julien knew he needed to mix up the lines to avoid a second consecutive trip to the shootout.

Julien then elected to send three forwards to the ice during the four-on-four overtime period.

"We haven't been very lucky in shootouts or we haven't gotten much out of our shootouts so I just thought it was important to maybe get a line out there," Julien explained of his decision after the game.

His decision paid off almost immediately, as right winger Jarome Iginla fed the puck to center David Krejci near the Hurricanes blue line. Krejci split both Carolina defenders and deked to his right, slotting the puck past Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward for the 3-2 win.

However, the Bruins could not manufacture the same overtime luck on Thursday night when the St. Louis Blues came to town and left with a 3-2 shootout win over the Bruins.

At the end of an intense first period, the Bruins struck first. At the 18:20 mark, center Gregory Campbell netted his first goal of the year to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. The Blues responded just 30 seconds later, sending a shot past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask to tie the game in the second period.

Julien said that he was impressed with the play of Campbell and his line to stand up to and grab the lead against a tough opponent.

"[Campbell's] been playing well the last little while-the last three games or so I really felt like he and his line have really been kind of turning the corner here a little bit and tonight, in my mind, they played like a top line," he said.

The Blues grabbed the lead just over 16 minutes into the period. However, the Bruins tied the game three minutes later with a goal by center Carl Soderberg. Neither team scored in the third period despite Boston's 11 shots on goal.

The Blues had the best opportunity to put the game away in overtime.

However, Rask saved a breakaway attempt by center Derek Roy and, from there, the game headed to a shootout.

Though Rask kept the Bruins alive with saves from right wings T.J. Oshie and Chris Stewart, it was Roy who had the decider.

Roy's shot in the fourth round of the shootout broke a 1-1 tie to give the visitors a 3-2 win.

The Bruins return to action tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in a road match against the Detroit Red Wings.