Bruins edge Senators on Zacha's late goal in OT

BOSTON -- Pavel Zacha scored with 5.6 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Boston Bruins extended their winning streak to five games with a 3-2 victory against the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden on Thursday.

Charlie McAvoy picked up a loose puck in the left corner and skated all the way across the zone before sliding a shot on net from along the goal line. Linus Ullmark made the initial save, but the rebound sat near the right post, where Zacha jammed it in.

“It was a big team win,” Zacha said. “Until the end, all the lines were going. Even through injuries, a couple of guys leaving the game, we stuck together and won the game.”

Morgan Geekie and Sean Kuraly also scored, Andrew Peeke had two assists, and Joonas Korpisalo made 20 saves for the Bruins (9-7-0).

“We’re doing enough right things to hang in games, and if you give yourself a chance you put yourself in a spot to get points,” Kuraly said. “There are still things we want to clean up, but we’re sticking to our systems and we’re eliminating major mistakes that ended up in the back of our net during that losing streak (six games from Oct. 13-23). It might’ve looked a lot worse than what it was, and then you just get down on yourself. So now we’re eliminating those major mistakes and honed in on a couple of areas of our defensive zone structure.”

Claude Giroux had a goal and an assist, Michael Amadio scored, and Ullmark made 22 saves for the Senators (6-5-3), who had not played since a 4-3 overtime loss at the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

“We didn’t have a lot of good players tonight, to be honest,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “I thought we hung in there. I thought we defended fairly well, but we spent a lot of time in our zone the first two periods because we weren’t playing well enough. We got beat to a lot of loose pucks. ... I’m happy we found a way to get a point against a team that’s going well and playing good at home. I like that we came out in the third period and got back to our game. It was a good point on the road for how we played.”

Amadio gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 5:42 of the first period. Shane Pinto took a short pass from Giroux at the offensive blue line, skated in on a 2-on-1 and passed across to Amadio, who finished glove side with a quick wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle.

“I liked our first five minutes," Green said. "I thought we got outworked for the next 35, and I liked our third."

Geekie tied it 1-1 at 1:22 of the second period. He jammed in a rebound at the left post after Peeke's slap shot from the top of right circle went under Ullmark's blocker arm.

The play happened after Geekie helped the Bruins maintain possession with an aggressive forecheck.

“It’s just not good enough to start,” Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot said. “The first 35 minutes we didn’t play good. We didn’t win our battles and they won all the puck battles. They wanted it more than we did, it’s as simple as that. We did a good job coming back in the third, but at the end of the day, we need to be better as a team.”

Kuraly put the Bruins in front 2-1 at 16:03. Tanner Jeannot controlled the puck along the right boards and quickly passed to Kuraly, who roofed a wrist shot over Ullmark's glove.

"Jeannot makes the whole thing happen,” Kuraly said. “The longer you can hold onto the puck and cause stress on teams, especially coming back into your zone, it’s hard to check and mark guys, so he held onto it, eventually draws a couple of guys in, and I was happy to stay in some good ice and happy to finish it.”

Giroux tied it 2-2 at 11:52 of the third period. He scored one second after a power play expired with a shot from the left circle that trickled five-hole on Korpisalo through a screen.

“Any time you play in Boston and you’re down a goal in the third, it’s a tough building to get that extra goal,” Giroux said. “We did a good job, had a lot of chances, but we know we need to be better.”

NOTES: Bruins center John Beecher sustained an upper-body injury in the first period. Coach Marco Sturm did not have an update after the game. ... Bruins forward Casey Mittelstadt left the game late in the second period following a knee-on-knee collision but returned for the third.