Down Elias Lindholm to an in-game injury, Marco Sturm and the Bruins needed a new top-line center. And they got that and then some, as it was Marat Khusnutdinov who moved into Lindholm’s spot and played overtime hero in a 4-3 win over the Sabres at TD Garden on Thursday night.

“It’s unbelievable for me. First game on the first line, first goal of the season,” Khusnutdinov said after the win. “It’s great for the team, great for me.” 

For the Bruins, the Khusnutdinov goal helped seal the deal on Boston’s second straight win, and their third win in the last four games.

The Bruins wasted no time in jumping ahead in this one, either, with a pair of first-period tallies from Morgan Geekie and then David Pastrnak for a 2-0 lead.

Geekie’s goal pushed his goal streak to six games, while Pastrnak’s steal-and-snipe marker was good for his seventh goal of the campaign, and his fifth goal in the last seven games dating back to their Oct. 19 loss in Utah.

In the middle frame, the Sabres would finally respond, and did so with a Rasmus Dahlin power-play blast through Joonas Korpisalo. The goal ended a streak of 56 straight saves for Korpisalo dating back to the first period of Tuesday’s game.

But the Bruins made sure they ended the second frame how they began it, and pushed their lead back out to two with a last-minute strike from Mark Kastelic.

The goal even came with some post-whistle jawing between the Bruins and Sabres forward Jordan Greenway. The spat seemed to be initiated by Tanner Jeannot, and was then fueled further with a Kastelic bump on Greenway as the referees ordered them to disperse, and then continued with the Bruins’ Nikita Zadorov arguing with Greenway and any and every Sabre for that matter.

Speaking after the win, Zadorov did not want to go into depth on what was said in the conversation, but did mention that he gave Greenway a fight last season when he hit one of their better players with a clean hit (Tage Thompson) and was seemingly expecting the same courtesy to be extended to him.

But with tempers flaring, the Sabres struck back, with third-period markers from Josh Doan and Alex Tuch, and with the Bruins unsuccessfully challenging for goaltender interference on Tuch’s game-tying tally.

In goal, Korpisalo was given his second straight start for Sturm’s club and turned in another strong outing, with 37 saves on 40 shots faced in the win. This marked the first time that Korpisalo had given consecutive starts since joining the Bruins via trade ahead of the 2024-25 season.

The Bruins will wrap up this three-game homestand with a visit from the Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon.