MONTREAL -- It was 3-1, and boy, did it sure seem like it would become 3-1.

With the Habs leading by a pair of goals in the second period of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, it seemed they were just another rope-a-dope display away from grabbing the victory and having a 3-1 stranglehold on the series. They had absolutely dominated the B's for the first 27 minutes of the game. In fact, when it was a 1-1 tie following Michael Ryder's first goal early on in the second period, the scoreboard was a poor indicator of how the two teams were playing. 

For much of the playoffs, it has been reasonable to expect more from players based on the way they performed in the postseason. Tim Thomas, while great in spots over the first three games, hadn't been seemed to have entered "best goalie in the league" mode for an entire contest. Milan Lucic hadn't made a blip on the radar. Michael Ryder seemed to be a lost cause. Yet while individual performances were discussed and scrutinized in every which way, the fact of the matter was that the Bruins, even in their Game 3 win, had yet to do anything as a team that knocked anyone's socks off.  They couldn't get past the shot-blocking Habs in the first two games, and they had to weather a serious comeback bid by the Canadiens Monday after leading, 3-0. 

That all changed after Andrei Kostitsyn made it 3-1 in the second period on Thursday. In a game that the Bruins absolutely could not afford to lose, Claude Julien called a timeout to get things in order for the Bruins. With the Bell Centre crowd the loudest it had been all night, Julien prepared the B's for two more comebacks -- tying the game at three and later coming back from a 4-3 deficit.

"They scored two quick goals, and obviously in this building they had momentum and I just wanted to slow things down to start with," Julien said following the game. "And at the same time I just told our team to relax and there was still half a game left to play. And we had to stick to our game plan, and we just seemed, as the game went on, we got better and better and found a way to get back into it and found a way to win it at the end."

Julien said back in Lake Placid that he isn't a believer in momentum, and that he doesn't necessarily think that what happens in one game can impact another. With the way the B's were able to find a way to hand the Habs a humiliating loss and tie the series at two games, it should be both a surprise and a disappointment for the Bruins if the feeling from Thursday doesn’t carry over to Saturday’s Game 5. 

After winning the way they did Thursday, any preconceived notions about the rest of the series may go out the window. If the Habs jump out to a 2-0 lead in Game 5, the “they’re just going to block shots” excuse won’t work. The Bruins can work past it. They battled through missed chances and bad penalties (including an interference call on Dennis Seidenberg with 2:19 remaining in regulation), and in the end proved capable of making as many comebacks (three) as they did.

“I knew we had character in here,” Shawn Thornton said following the game. “I think guys did a good job of focusing and not veering away from the game plan. I think that was the biggest thing. We were down by a goal, and we didn't try to create things out of the ordinary. We kind of stuck with it, and it ended up paying off. We had a pretty strong game.” 

Patrice Bergeron also noted that it was a “character win” for he and his teammates, and that he didn’t see anything Thursday night that he didn’t already know about his team. 

“In the playoffs, that's what it's all about,” Patrice Bergeron said. That's what you need. It's only one game. Yes, we're happy, but we obviously need to make sure we carry that over for Saturday and know that we're going to be ready.” 

The Bruins recovered in remarkable fashion Thursday, and now have the a shot at taking their first series lead Saturday. It all started with one timeout. 

“We knew we could do it,” Bergeron said. “We had to be better, and we had to just find a way to have a huge shift, a big shift and get that momentum back. We did that, and then we went from there.”