Brad Marchand was not expected to play on Wednesday night. He did and, of course, the former Bruin captain lifted the Florida Panthers to a 5-4 shootout victory over the B’s.

But unlike the shootout loss in Tampa on Sunday, this one could be considered a good loser point. The Bruins got third-period goals from Mark Kastelic and Casey Mittelstadt to erase a 4-2 deficit to send it to overtime, where both Joonas Korpisalo and Sergei Bobrovsky had to make several high danger saves.

“They’re big points. I’m not going to lie. It’s been a grind. We can see now those points are big. Unfortunately twice we came up short on the shootout,” coach Marco Sturm told reporters in Florida. “That’s where we have to get better, too, because at the end of end of the day, you might need those points. We just have to dial in on that. But again, going to Florida, it’s not always an easy trip. You’ve got the Stanley Cup champions here, you’ve got Tampa being the hottest team in the league. And we survived. So I give my guys, to this point, a lot of credit. Nobody thought we’d be in that position and we are right now. I’m proud of them.”

The best news for the B’s – and Team USA – was that Charlie McAvoy survived a dangerous head shot in the first period. He had a chance to win it in the shootout, but Bobrovsky poke–checked his chance away. Marchand scored and then Bobrovsky ended it with a save on Mittelstadt.

The B’s head into the Olympic break positioned inside the playoff bracket with a four-point cushion over the surging Columbus Blue Jackets, who won again on Wednesday and still have a game in hand.

“Listen, we’re definitely happy with where we are,” said David Pastrnak. “We are in the playoffs right now and, honestly, if you said that before the season that heading into the break that we’d be in a playoff position, we’d all take it. Lot of space to improve as a team and the way we play. But at the same time, we’re in a good spot and put ourselves in a good spot heading into the last 20 or so games.”

The Panthers entered the game in desperation mode, behind the Bruins by nine points for the second wild card. Coach Paul Maurice might have even engaged in a little gamesmanship, telling reporters in the morning that Marchand would remain out, only for Marchand to be in the lineup. Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell also returned.

And the Panthers had jump early on. They scored one goal that was called back for an offside by then took the first lead of the game for real at 4:22. Morgan Geekie tried to move a bouncing puck and he fouled it off. It went right to Eetu Luostarinen, who beat Korpisalo with a low wrister.

But the B’s eventually woke up and took the lead on two Mikey Eyssimont goals. But a whole lot more than the goals went on in the first period.

Eyssimont tied the game at 7:18 when Alex Steeves made a nice pass to Eyssimont at the Florida blue line as two Panthers collided with each other, allowing Eyssimont to move in alone and beat Sergei Bobrovsky between that pads.

McAvoy was moving the puck through the neutral zone and after passing it, Sandis Vilmanis delivered a clear cheap shot that knocked McAvoy to the ice. Vilmanis left his feet and landed a clear elbow to the side of McAvoy’s head and his surgically repaired jaw. It was worthy of a five-minute major and Vilmanis will no doubt get a call from the Department of Player Safety.

With McAvoy on the ice and obvious discomfort, the B’s went after the Panther. When the dust settled, the refs refused to review the hit, which was within their power to do, and settled for a two-minute penalty. But it got even more strange. They not only tagged Jonathan Aspirot with roughing minor, they then called a bench minor, presumably on an incredulous Sturm, giving the Panthers a power play.

“I’m here to protect my guys, especially Charlie. And if you target the head, which was clear to see, that just pisses me off,” said Sturm.

McAvoy missed the rest of the period but returned for the second period.  Vilmanis did not play again, with the Panthers announcing he had an upper body injury.

“I think I’d be lying if I said we weren’t pissed off,” said Mittelstadt. “Obviously with Charlie,  you never want to see that…he’s Charlie McAvoy. He’s our best D-man and a huge part of this team. Yeah, we were worried, for sure.”

Not only did the B’s kill off the minor, Marat Khusnutdinov connected on a stretch pass with Eyssimont, who had been serving the bench minor. On the clean breakaway, Eyssimont faked Bobrovsky to the ice and then tucked it around the netminder’s skate for his eighth.

In the final minute of the period, tempers rose again and Tanner Jeannot battled A.J. Greer in a heavyweight bout with Jeannot scoring a hard-earned knockdown.

All in all, it was a good period for the B’s. But they could not leave well enough alone. Nikita Zadorov took a slashing penalty on pest Matthew Tkachuk at the end of the period. It was a ticky-tack call, to say the least, but it was also unnecessary.

As has been the case lately, when the B’s aim at their own feet, they rarely miss. Just 30 seconds into the second, Uvis Balinskis tied the game on the power play.

Then after Viktor Arvidsson was called for hooking Bennett in front of the net, Tkachuk gave the Panthers their second lead of the game when he banked a shot off Korpisalo from behind the net.

But the B’s had their chances to tie the game that they squandered. They got three straight power plays and did everything but score. The best chance was a backdoor play for Arvidsson, who had a wide open net but heeled it wide. Bobrovsky also made two great saves on Alex Steeves in tight at even strength.

Then came what appeared to be the killer. On the third straight PP, the B’s won the draw but Sam Reinhart picked off the pass to the point and they were off. Eventually, Reinhart fed Lundell for the shorty and the B’s were down 4-2 with 1:27 left in the period.

It appeared as though they would go into the break meekly when they did not have much urgency on an early third period PP. But with 12:08 left in regulation, the B’s drew within a goal when Kastelic redirected home a McAvoy slap pass to make it 4-3.

Then on their sixth power play, the B’s finally cashed in. Mittelstadt found a rebound in the slot and scored on the put-back to even it up at 10:30.

The B’s got a seventh power play with 4:17 left in regulation, but the only scoring chance was shorthanded breakaway by Reinhart that Korpisalo turned away.

After the back-and-forth OT, the shootout went to the fourth round. Marchand did not see the ice in OT but calmly stepped to the center dot, bore in on Korpisalo and beat him over the glove with a pretty backhander, a move Pastrnak knows well.

“Yeah,  I honestly knew he was going to do the backhand move,” said Marchand’s former linemate. “That’s his move.”

And that, after the BBobrovsky save on Mittelstadt, was game.