nce the playoffs start, there always seem to be unlikely heroes who come out of nowhere to make an impact.
And with the Bruins' regular-season stretch run the equivalent of the playoffs, their unlikely heroes are making their presence felt.
On Saturday night, it was P.J. Axelsson who set up the winner against the New York Islanders. Last night, it was right wing Andrei Kovalenko - benched for most of the second half of the game - who potted the deciding goal with 2:07 remaining in overtime.
The end result was a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at the FleetCenter. The Bruins are now a point ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes in the race for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.
Boston has three games left; Carolina, with a game in hand, will face the Blues in St. Louis tonight.
''We're a point up,'' said coach Mike Keenan. ''I guess they've won a couple of games in overtime as well. It's tight. Is that overstating it?''
Kovalenko, who logged only 7:40 of ice time over 11 shifts (less than half his average of 15:20), took a centering pass from Joe Thornton and beat goalie Jose Theodore for his 16th goal of the season. After a 26-game drought with no goals, Kovalenko has two in his last three games.
''He can score goals in a streaky fashion,'' said Keenan. ''Maybe it's time for him to go on a little bit of a streak.''
Keenan decided to play Kovalenko in overtime because he felt he could add something during the four-on-four.
''He can skate,'' said Keenan. ''Sometimes he's reluctant to do that, but he's got the skating skills that others don't. When you've got that kind of open ice, you have to use people who can skate. And he was fresh.''
Realistically, the Bruins shouldn't have been in that position. They were up, 2-0, heading into the third period, which should've been enough, given how feeble the Canadiens' play was in the first 40 minutes.
Right wing Bill Guerin put the Bruins on the board at 18:48 of the first with his 40th goal of the season. He became the first Boston player to reach the 40-goal plateau since Cam Neely potted 50 back in 1993-94.
Guerin made the most of a Montreal turnover, charging up the ice and wristing a shot from high in the right circle that beat Theodore between the pads.
The Bruins boosted the advantage to 2-0 at 10:18 of the second with a goal from another unlikely source: forward Mikko Eloranta, who earned his 10th of the season and first in 21 games.
Thornton teed up a slapper from the left circle that trickled through Theodore, who had come out of the crease to cut down the angle. Eloranta raced in, picked up the loose puck, and fired it into the net.
The Canadiens pulled within a goal at 4:17 of the third, with shifty center Saku Koivu picking up his 16th of the year. Koivu took a pass from right wing Oleg Petrov, and his shot from the right circle deflected off defenseman Peter Popovic and past goalie Byron Dafoe.
With 1:41 left in regulation, Petrov scored off a scramble in front to tie it, 2-2, setting the stage for overtime.
''It was a disappointing couple of minutes there when we let them tie it up,'' said Dafoe. ''Like the Islanders game, though, we dug deep and pulled it out.
''A tie could've put us out of this - not necessarily mathematically, but probably emotionally. For us to come back and get the win gets us right back into it and puts a lot of pressure on Carolina again.
''No one should be pleased with the way we won it, but the fact that we won it is all that matters.''
