It was easy to envision Thursday’s head-to-head with the visiting Jets slipping away from the Bruins.

With a showdown against the Devils, a team that’s just eight points behind the Bruins in the Eastern Conference standings, on deck for Friday (and then a holiday break after that), a Thursday night visit from a Western Conference foe didn’t exactly get the blood pumping. Then came an early 2-0 for the Jets behind some poor puck management, and again, it was easy to start penning your odes to the dying home point streak.

But if there’s one thing we’ve come to learn about these Bruins, it’s that they’re never out of a game.

And all it takes is a single bounce.

The Bruins got that bounce in the second period of an eventual 3-2 win over Rick Bowness and the Jets, when a stanchioned puck bounced right to David Pastrnak’s blade, and the Bruins carried it all the way to victory.

“Well, we were relieved because the crowd got into it [after that goal], and then I think we started to play a lot better,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery admitted. “We gotta give the Winnipeg Jets [credit for] a great job. I thought they did the best job that we have faced as far as a forecheck and being on top of us with really good sticks that unfortunately we didn’t manage the puck well against. I give credit to them for how determined they were checking us.”

But once again, it was the quiet and steady determination of the Bruins and their veteran-laden room that outshined the opposition’s best shot, as the Bruins scored three straight on Connor Hellebuyck on a night where the Winnipeg netminder and 2023 Vezina contender was certainly ‘on’ his game.

Here’s the 98.5 The Sports Hub (dot com) 3 Stars of the game from a win over Winnipeg…

No. 3 Star: Jake DeBrusk

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – DECEMBER 22: Jake DeBrusk #74 of the Boston Bruins celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal against the Winnipeg Jets during the second period at the TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)

When Jake DeBrusk gets going, particularly with his forechecking and skating game, there’s a noticeable uptick in the energy from just about everybody else on the ice. Add in a goal and the Bruins are straight-up flying out there.

On the board with the game-tying goal in the second period of Thursday’s contest, DeBrusk also finished the Black and Gold’s 3-2 win over the Jets with three shots, one hit, and a takeaway. And during DeBrusk’s 14:15 of five-on-five time on ice, the Bruins held an on-ice shot advantage of 12-4. I thought DeBrusk was especially strong along the walls and behind the net when it came to winning 50-50 battles and extending the B’s offensive zone time.

The goal was also good for the 200th point of DeBrusk’s NHL career.

“Shows his skill in tight, his hands, his ability to make quick, electric plays in and around the net on the power play, but also five on five,” Montgomery said of DeBrusk’s goal in this contest. “I thought he was really good all night.”

No. 2 Star: David Pastrnak

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – DECEMBER 22: David Pastrnak #88 of the Boston Bruins skates on a breakaway in front of Neal Pionk #4 of the Winnipeg Jets during the first period at the TD Garden. (Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)

Bruins winger David Pastrnak said he had a simple goal in mind when a puck went rogue and bounced his way off the stanchion to the right of Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck: get the shot on net.

Oh, that’s a bingo.

There’s obviously an element of luck at play with No. 88’s tally, sure, but it was the jolt of life that the Bruins needed to get themselves back into this game. Pastrnak and the Bruins made sure to build on it, too as DeBrusk tied things up with a tip of a Pastrnak shot that saw Pastrnak show excellent patience versus simply blasting it on goal (this was a noticeable quality from him in this game) to make sure it led to a legitimate high-end scoring opportunity.

Pacing all Boston forwards with six shots on goal, Pastrnak also led the team in all-situation individual scoring chances (five), and is now up to 45 points on the season. Taylor Hall is the next closest Bruin, by the way, in case you were curious, with 27 points on the season. This has been a MVP-quality year from the pending free agent.

No. 1 Star: Nick Foligno

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – DECEMBER 22: Nick Foligno #17 of the Boston Bruins reacts after scoring a goal against the Winnipeg Jets during the third period at the TD Garden on December 22, 2022 (Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)

Boston’s three-goal run on Winnipeg really kicked off with a Nick Foligno bounce off the stanchion, so perhaps it was only fitting that the veteran wing scored the third-period goal that held as the game-winning tally by the night’s end.

Deadlocked at 2-2 midway through the third frame — and with the 19-game home point streak on the line — Foligno snuck into the sweet spot of the offensive zone while Charlie Coyle did Charlie Coyle things and took advantage of the pass Coyle fed him for his sixth goal of the campaign.

The goal was Foligno’s first since Dec. 9 in Arizona, and was actually his first even-strength goal since Oct. 22 against Minnesota, and couldn’t have come at a better time for the Bruins. In what finished as a 13-shot final frame for the Bruins, Boston was 0-for-10 on tries for the go-ahead prior to Foligno’s putaway on Hellebuyck.

There’s a natural element of frustration that could’ve and would’ve crept into their game had Foligno missed on another golden opportunity. Instead, they got to exhale and buckle down for the one-goal victory.

And how about this bounce-back season for Foligno? Among a group of 287 forwards with at least 300 minutes of five-on-five play this season, Foligno ranks 93rd in points-per-60 (2.02), and is 82nd in assists-per-60 (1.29).