It looked dicey at times, but the Bruins had no interest in effin’ around and finding out like they did en route to a shootout loss Thursday night against the Kings, as the Bruins scored two goals in a 19-second stretch in the third period to blow things open and top the Blue Jackets by a 4-2 final at TD Garden.

The goals, which were scored by Taylor Hall on a delayed penalty and then by Tomas Nosek, came with 7:19 and then 7:00 left in the third period, and proved to be exactly what the Bruins needed against a resilient Columbus squad.

“That was really important,” Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron said of the team’s quick strikes in the third period. “When you’re playing good teams and if you let them hang around, they’re going to find a way and then that’s when trouble starts, right? So, I think when you’re able to get that next goal [or] the extra goal, that’s when you kind of get that momentum or you take the wind out of their sails.

“I think that’s kind of how we approached it, is trying to find a way to get the next goal and we saw it right away. You know, that fourth was huge for us to to go up by three and then it was an easier end of the game after that.”

Up against an undermanned Columbus squad, the Bruins first broke this game open with a first-period power-play strike off the stick of David Pastrnak at the 7:17 mark of the game.

The blast was good for Pastrnak’s 20th of the season, giving him seven straight seasons of at least 20 goals, and was his 18th different effort of at least one goal through the first 30 games of the season. Overall, Pastrnak has recorded at least one point in all but four of the first 30 games of the 2022-23 season.

Brought back even behind a Boone Jenner power-play goal, the Bruins once again jumped out front with another power-play strike, this time off the stick of David Krejci, in the middle frame.

The Krejci goal was the capper to a beautiful passing sequence that saw Taylor Hall hit Charlie McAvoy right on the tape before McAvoy tossed it over to Krejci for the bomb that beat the Jackets’ Daniil Tarasov.

With a goal and assist in the win, Krejci bumped his 2022-23 line up to nine goals and 23 points through 25 game, with his 23 points currently ranking as the fifth-most among all Boston forwards this season.

But the story of this contest came in the Black and Gold’s crease, as Jeremy Swayman had a bounce-back game and a half in goal, with 31 saves on 33 shots faced in the winning effort.

“I thought he was our best player, and I think he needed to be,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said of Swayman. “Very confident, very confident in his movements.”

The effort was an awesome rebounding from a 12-of-16 outing in Arizona back on Dec. 9, and was just what the doctor ordered for the 24-year-old Swayman.

The sign of a confident netminder? Swayman even went for an empty-net goal and came within inches of being the first Bruins netminder in team history to score an empty-net goal.

A beaming Swayman said it’s the closest he’s come to scoring a goal, and it’s clear he’ll remain in pursuit of such an accomplishment.

“I wanna score so bad, man,” Swayman said after the game. “It’ll happen.”

Saturday’s contest came with a return to action for Bruins winger Craig Smith.

Skating in a fourth-line role, Smith tallied an assist on Nosek’s third-period goal, and added three shots and three takeaways, in 8:49 of time of ice in the victory.

With the win, the Bruins improved to 16-0-2 on Garden ice this year, and became the first NHL team to hit the 50-point mark this season.

The Bruins will return to Garden ice Monday night against the Panthers.