4 thrilling Bruins takeaways from furious third-period rally & win over Blue Jackets

Coming off a 6-3 win over the Minnesota Wild, the Boston Bruins faced a difficult back-to-back on the road against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The hosts were coming off a loss the night before and were also on a back-to-back. Things started as badly as they could for the Bruins, who dug themselves a 3-0 hole after the first period.

However, Boston dominated the final 40 minutes, tied the game with 11 seconds left before winning in a shootout to deal the Blue Jackets a devastating loss. Here are four takeaways after the Black and Gold moved six points clear of the playoff cut line in the Eastern Conference.

Bruins play awful first period

Digging yourself a 3-0 first-period deficit on the road on the backend of a back-to-back isn't a recipe for success. After the win over the Wild and the Blue Jackets' loss with 1:20 left on Saturday to the San Jose Sharks, you had to know that Columbus was going to come out angry. They did, and Boston wasn't ready.

I'm sure Marco Sturm will say that this is something they can learn from, but at this point in the year, that's not an excuse. With points at a premium and every single point valuable, the first 20 minutes of the game were inexcusable. However, they were able to dig deep and steal two points.

Bruins stage furious third period rally that nobody saw coming

As mentioned above, the Bruins are not really built to rally from a three-goal deficit through one period. However, they played a good second period and then dominated the third period. Heck, even their power play scored not one, but two goals.

Charlie McAvoy cut the deficit to 3-1 with a shot from the point that found its way into the net. Then, Pavel Zacha tipped a shot on the power play to cut the deficit to 3-2. Then, with the goalie pulled and on the power play again, the Bruins tied the game when Zacha knocked home a loose puck in front of the net to force overtime. That set the stage for the shootout, where the Black and Gold connected on two of their three attempts.

Marco Sturm's Jeremy Swayman decision paid off

Before playing the Wild, head coach Marco Sturm dropped a subtle hint that Jeremy Swayman could play both ends of the back-to-back. It ended up happening, but it looked like the wrong decision through the first period when he allowed three goals. They were not his fault, but it got you thinking.

Swayman didn't allow a goal over the final 45 minutes of the game and faced just 12 shots in that span, the same number he faced in the first period. He also had two big saves in the shootout.

Fraser Minten gets shootout off on right foot

Scoring the first goal in the shootout is as big as scoring the first goal in a game. Columbus elected to go first and Swayman made a save. Sturm sent Fraser Minten out to shoot first for the Bruins and he scored. Instead of waiting until later in the shootout like he did earlier this month against the Washington Capitals, Sturm sent him out early.

Charlie Coyle scored for the Blue Jackets to even the shootout on their final shot, but Arvidsson made a beautiful move on his shot to seal the win and also seal the massive second point in the standings for the Black and Gold, who return to the TD Garden on Tuesday night to host the Dallas Stars.