BOSTON - Tonight it was Marc Savard’s turn to wear the hard-hat. It was his reward for picking the right time to bust out of a slump. Not just his team’s 0-10 slump this season against Montreal, but his own injury-riddled three-month funk, which saw him score two goals since the beginning of February.

Down 2-0 in the series and 9:25 into sudden-death overtime in Game Three, Savard capitalized off a pass from Dennis Wideman on a six-on-five delayed penalty opportunity, beating Carey Price to send a crowd of 17,565 at TD Banknorth Garden into bedlam.

“We all know he’s been through a painful injury and to see him come back, battle that way and see him rewarded is great,” his coach Claude Julien said. “It can only bring good things, hopefully in the future.’

On a night where the red, white and blue bunting hung high above press level and the banners outside said “Gotta ‘B’ Here,” Causeway Street was the place to be. Game Three was everything you could have wanted in a hockey game: physical play on both ends of the ice, emotion spewing at every whistle, spectacular chances and a pair of teams that have hated each other for the better part of eight-decades. There was a storyline, a protagonist and a villain, all based upon the color of your sweater.

Not to be outdone on this heart-stopping night was the Bruins’ youth movement. Milan Lucic, the team’s physical leader, did something the Bruins haven’t done all season: take a lead against the Canadiens. Off a broken play 6:30 into the opening period, Lucic beat Price to the blocker side up high, putting the black and gold up 1-0. He also threw the body around with six hits in what probably was his best game as a professional.

“Just for me, I feel like I’m more effective when I’m playing physical,” Lucic said. “I just want to establish a presence out there and try to make it hard on everyone else.”

Then there was David Krejci, who built off of his performance in Game 2, by creating opportunities, drawing penalties and blocking shots. With 13:31 left in the third period, he got some open space and put a shot on Price, drawing a desperation slashing call on Mark Streit. After taking a penalty of his own for holding Alex Kovalev, he flew out of the box and led a two-on-one break, his effort saved by the Montreal goaltender. But amid the confusion, another Bruins rookie, Jeremy Reich, drew a roughing penalty on Andrei Kostitsyn amidst the post-whistle scrum.

Tom Kostopoulos tied the game 4:26 into the second period, off of a rebound in front of the net. For Tim Thomas, his night started shaky, at times making the puck look like a hot potato, and ended with 27 saves and his first playoff victory. He was at his best when it really counted, solidifying a Bruins defensive unit which was successful in taking arch-nemesis Alex Kovalev out of the game, limiting him to just one shot in 23:10 of ice time.

“We tried to come out and do a lot of the same things,” Thomas said. “We’ve got a lot of guys laying it all out on the line and it’s good to get rewarded.”

Phil Kessel was scratched for the second straight night. Perhaps it was Julien sticking with what works. And Aaron Ward once again found himself alongside Zdeno Chara on the top defensive pairing. That is, when he wasn't in the penalty box. In the first period he was called for throwing Maxim Lapierre down along the boards behind the net. In the third, it was a tripping call in the exact same location. Special teams defense was a theme of the night for both clubs as neither could muster a power play goal.

“Both teams had good chances on the power play,” Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said. “Goalies made some great saves. We had a couple of good chances in overtime and Thomas was really strong."

But it was the Canadiens who managed to be overaggressive at the wrong time, as in overtime, it was Bryan Smolinski's slash of Peter Schaefer that opened the door for the six-on-five opportunity that sent this series back to Montreal.

So what if the Bruins chances of winning are about the same as Lauren Conrad updating her celebrity blog on NHL.com? As long as the next few games are as exciting as the last two, we’ve all won.

“Nobody expected to win four games,” Carbonneau said. “We still have one game here on Tuesday. We’ll still regroup tomorrow.”