3 Stars: The Marat Khusnutdinov Show rolls on for Bruins

For the first time since their fifth game of the season, the Bruins are back over .500 on the season. Now at 8-7-0 on the year, Marco Sturm's club had to overcome three separate deficits, kill off a penalty in the final two minutes of regulation and into overtime, and win a shootout.

But they did exactly that on the way to a 4-3 shootout final on Long Island, and in doing so, captured their fourth straight victory.

“It shows the character in our room," Sturm said following the victory. "I think overall we had a good feeling today. Even after they scored, the bench was good, the guys were good. We had plenty of opportunities, but we also knew whoever makes more mistakes, will end up [coming up] short.”

Here's a look at the 985TheSportsHub.com 3 Stars of the game...

The Bruins did not get the best version of No. 1 goaltender Jeremy Swayman on the goal that made it a 3-2 game for the Islanders. While Horvat is an obviously accomplished player, and someone who has torched the Bruins plenty in the past, it was by all means a stoppable shot. And if we knew it from watching, you just know that the 26-year-old Swayman himself knew it.

But the good news: The Bruins still had time left on the clock to make it a game after Horvat's goal, and more importantly, Swayman had time to respond with a strong finish. Peppered with eight more Islander shots following the Horvat goal and the final horn on the five-minute overtime horn, Swayman went a perfect 8-for-8, and had some high-quality stops along the way.

Swayman's best stop (an in-tight save on Emil Heineman) came with the Bruins still chasing the game, though he made he pushed this one to a shootout with a strong save on the Isles' Matthew Schaefer in overtime.

Overall, Swayman finished with a 29-for-32 line in the Boston crease, and stopped all three Islander shooters in the shootout.

Islanders center Bo Horvat loves going head-to-head with the Bruins.

And with numbers like his, who could blame him?

On the board with two goals in the losing effort, Horvat now has six goals in his last seven meetings against the Bruins. These aren't empty-calorie goals and points for Horvat, either, as he's been a downright dominant force for the Isles whenever he's out there on the ice against the Black and Gold.

In addition to the goals, Horvat led the way for all New York skaters with five shots on goal, and won 11 of his 18 battles at the dot (61.1 percent).

With Elias Lindholm on the shelf for the foreseeable future, the Bruins are asking an awful lot out of Marat Khusnutdinov. I mean, not often is a player asked to go from fourth line to healthy scratch to first line. But that's what Sturm is asking out of the 23-year-old Khusnutdinov. And he's delivering.

In his third game with an elevated role, Khusnutdinov continued what's been a mini-heater of sorts, this time with the game-tying goal and then the game-winning goal in the three-round shootout for Boston.

In addition to the goals, Khusnutdinov even showed off some defensive chops, as he had a great poke check to deny Horvat a chance at the hat trick in overtime. He did so while skating backwards almost effortlessly, too, basically skating as Boston's defenseman during the 3-on-3 sequence.

It's been that kind of week for the Russian-born forward.