But even getting there was a bit of craziness in itself.

And that was where Johnny Gaudreau scored his third goal of the game from — who else? — former Bruins defenseman Dougie Hamilton to give the Flames a 5-4 win with 1:40 left.

CALGARY — The last time the Bruins were in Calgary, the Flames scored with 2.4 seconds remaining in overtime. This time, they scored with 1.2 remaining in regulation, Jiri Hudler knocking a puck behind Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask in the midst of a scrum around the net to send the game to overtime.

"That's not our hockey," Rask said. "It's fun to watch. That's happened a couple times this year, I think. It's fun to watch, but a lot of times when we play that way, we're not going to win the game. Have to be better at that. Just disappointing that we had the win, but then again, last-second goal like that should have never happened. It [stinks]."

With 2:17 left to play in the third period, the Bruins were called for delay of game, a call that coach Claude Julien argued. Zdeno Chara, the player the Bruins could least afford to lose on their penalty kill, went to the box. It was not Chara's day, with some poor-decision making and costly giveaways, including on that final goal by Gaudreau, going down in front of Hamilton to try to counter the two-on-one.


But the penalty kill yielded a shorthanded chance by Brad Marchand, the best shorthanded goal scorer in the game. As he closed in on the net, Hamilton managed to slash Marchand's stick out of his hands on the breakaway, giving the Bruins a penalty shot.

With 1:06 remaining, Marchand scored to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead on a pretty shot between Flames goaltender Karri Ramo's pads for his second goal of the game.


"We had a chance to win it," Julien said. "We couldn't seal the deal there at the end."

For the second consecutive game, the Bruins got a point, extending their streak to seven straight games with at least a point. But for the second consecutive game, it was a disappointing outcome, with the Bruins losing in extra sessions to two of the worst teams in the NHL.

And though the end was exciting, it wasn't the only period in which the Bruins and Flames traded chances, a bad thing for this Bruins team. As Marchand said, "We're not a run-and-gun team."

In a span of just 46 seconds in the second period, the Bruins scored twice, the Flames scored once, and Boston ended up with a new goaltender.

It started at 1:36, when Brett Connolly fed a streaking Marchand for a snipe shot that beat Ramo to bring the Bruins and Flames back to even. But not for long, with Gaudreau notching his second of the game 20 seconds later. And, with that, Julien made the call. Jonas Gustavsson was out. Rask was in.

"Change in momentum," Julien said of his decision. "I know the second goal wasn't a great goal and the first goal, left the guy alone and it went through him, but at one point you want to change the momentum a little bit."

And 26 seconds after that, Chara earned his fifth goal with a shot past screeners in front of Ramo. The score was tied, again.


The Bruins almost took their first lead at 6:44 of the second, as Marchand stickhandled around a Flames defender for a dish to Connolly on the right of the net. Connolly's shot looked ticketed for the back of the net before he was robbed with a glove save by Ramo.

It was a very sloppy first period for the Bruins, full of bad passes and giveaways, one of which led almost immediately to a goal. Just 33 seconds after puck drop, Gaudreau beat Gustavsson after Chara turned the puck over at the defensive blue line. It was a messy moment and a messier result.

And it didn't stop there. The Flames took a two-goal lead on a wrister from Mark Giordano from just above the left faceoff dot at 15:55 of the period.

But the Bruins got one back in the first period, with a Matt Beleskey deflection of a Chara shot at 17:19, with Beleskey parked in front of the net. The goal, which went off Beleskey's shin guard, was his first after a 13-game drought.

It wasn't enough.

"We gave up a couple of bad goals there," Julien said of the first period. "I didn't think our game was that bad at that point. We were able to get ourselves back into it, but again, we kill ourselves with our own mistakes. Simple as that."

They were able to come back. But they couldn't prevent the Flames from coming back as well. And with the way the Flames scored in the final seconds to tie the score, Rask did indeed see a mirror of last season's trip to Calgary.


As a bemused Rask joked after the game, "We cut it in half. Nice. Next year we've got to cut it even closer. Couple of years and we're going to win it."

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @amaliebenjamin.