Patrice Bergeron (1-3–4 totals) scored the game-winning goal in overtime, but David Pastrnak (3-1–4) had a hat trick in the Boston Bruins’, 4-3, overtime victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night.

Tuukka Rask (4-1-1, 2.57 goals against average, .888 save percentage in six games played) stopped 22 out of 25 shots faced (.880 SV%) en route to the overtime win for Boston.

Philadelphia goaltender, Carter Hart (4-2-2, 3.42 GAA, .898 SV% in eight games played) made 31 saves on 35 shots against in the overtime loss.

The Bruins improved to 7-1-2 (16 points) on the season and moved into 1st place in the MassMutual NHL East Division, while the Flyers fell to 7-2-2 (16 points) and dropped to 2nd place in the division.

Bruins head coach, Bruce Cassidy, made two changes to his lineup from Monday night’s, 5-3, win in Washington, D.C. to Wednesday’s matchup in Philadelphia– scratching Karson Kuhlman and replacing him with Anton Blidh on the fourth line while moving Anders Bjork to the right side of Sean Kuraly on that same line.

Everything else was left intact as Ondrej Kase (upper body), Matt Grzelcyk (lower body) and Jake DeBrusk (lower body) remain out of the lineup due to injury.

Greg McKegg, Jack Studnicka, Par Lindholm, John Moore, Urho Vaakanainen, Callum Booth and Dan Vladar all remained as healthy scratches and/or taxi squad members while Kuhlman joined the list Wednesday night as a healthy scratch.

Boston General Manager, Don Sweeney, was named as an Assistant General Manager for Team Canada at the 2022 Winter Games earlier on Wednesday.

He’ll be joined by the likes of Doug Armstrong (General Manager), Ken Holland (Associate GM), Ron Francis (Assistant GM), Roberto Luongo (Assistant GM) and Scott Salmond (Assistant GM) in Beijing, China next February.

The Bruins worked their way into the zone from the initial puck drop as Pastrnak (3) drove to the net, slipped the puck between his own legs and around Flyers defender, Shayne Ghostisbehere, before flipping the rubber biscuit off of Ivan Provorov’s stick and into the twine to give Boston the game’s first goal.

Charlie McAvoy (8) and Bergeron (7) had the assists on Pastrnak’s goal and the B’s led, 1-0, 12 seconds into the first period.

It was the only event on the event sheet in the opening frame as the Bruins took a, 1-0, lead into the first intermission, despite both teams earning eight shots on goal aside.

Boston led in takeaways (3-2), hits (14-10) and faceoff win percentage (53-47), while Philadelphia led in giveaways (7-1) through 20 minutes.

Both teams had four blocked shots each and had yet to see time on the skater advantage entering the middle frame.

Blidh was penalized for holding just past the midpoint of the second period at 10:10 and presented the Flyers with the first power play of the night.

Philadelphia’s power play was powerless, however.

Moments later, after McAvoy had his stick slashed out of his hand and was using Charlie Coyle’s– rendering Boston effectively short of a skater– Travis Sanheim setup Kevin Hayes (6) through the slot for a one-timer goal that tied the game, 1-1.

Sanheim (3) and Philippe Myers (2) tallied the assists on Hayes’ goal at 15:29 of the second period.

Nearly three minutes later, James van Riemsdyk cut a rut to the penalty box for Philly after slashing Kevan Miller at 18:25.

Boston couldn’t convert on the ensuing power play, however.

Through 40 minutes of action Wednesday night in Philadelphia, the score was tied, 1-1, despite Boston leading in shots on goal, 21-19, including a, 13-11, advantage in second period shots alone.

The Bruins also held the advantage in takeaways (6-5), while the Flyers led in giveaways (8-2), hits (22-19) and faceoff win% (55-46).

Both teams had 10 blocked shots each and were 0/1 on the power play heading into the final frame of regulation.

Early in the third period, Jakub Voracek (3) gave Philly their first lead of the night, 2-1, when his teammates pounced on a costly turnover by Jakub Zboril in his own defensive zone.

Sanheim (4) and van Riemsdyk (9) notched the primary and secondary assists, respectively, on Voracek’s goal at 1:03 of the third period.

Almost midway through the third, Joel Farabee (6) received a pass from Scott Laughton and buried a one-timer while Zboril was left trying to block the passing lane with an outstretched stick on an odd-skater rush after van Riemsdyk won a battle along the boards.

Laughton (5) and van Riemsdyk (10) had the assists on Farabee’s goal and the Flyers took a, 3-1, lead at 8:41 of the third period.

Nicolas Aube-Kubel closed his hand on the puck a few minutes later and received a minor infraction at 11:55.

It didn’t take the B’s long to turn Aube-Kubel’s minor into a costly penalty.

Just 10 seconds into the power play, Pastrnak (4) rocketed his second goal of the night over Hart’s blocker side into the opposite corner of the net– bringing Boston to within one.

Bergeron (8) and Nick Ritchie (5) had the assists on Pastrnak’s power-play goal at 12:05 and the Bruins trailed, 3-2.

Jeremy Lauzon presented the Flyers with another power play after he received a holding minor at 14:17, but Boston’s penalty kill successfully killed the infraction.

Late in the period, Hayes hooked Brad Marchand at 17:59 and provided Boston with one another chance on the skater advantage, while trailing by a goal.

With 1:10 remaining in regulation, Cassidy pulled Rask for an extra attacker, but despite a couple of zone entries, the Bruins were unsuccessful through a stoppage of play with 38.4 seconds left on the clock.

Boston used their timeout to draw up a plan and in the dying seconds, the Bruins just about threw the kitchen sink at Hart before Pastrnak (5) pocket a rebound into the twine to tie the game, 3-3, with a hat trick goal.

Pastrnak’s ninth career regular season hat trick came in his 393rd career game (all with Boston)– good enough for the fourth most in Bruins franchise history behind Phil Esposito (26 in 625 games played), Cam Neely (14 in 525 GP) and Johnny Bucyk (12 in 1,436 GP).

Wednesday night also marked the fourth time that No. 88 in black and gold scored multiple goals in consecutive games in his career (Feb. 1-3, 2021, Oct. 14-17, 2019, Feb. 4-9, 2017 and Jan. 10-13 2015).

Marchand (10) and Bergeron (9) collected the helpers on Pastrnak’s power-play goal at 19:45 and the Bruins had forced overtime, but not before Laughton interfered with Kuraly at 19:52 of the third period.

That’s right, the Flyers took another penalty with 7.3 seconds left on the clock in regulation and would be going into overtime shorthanded.

At the conclusion of regulation, the score was tied, 3-3, despite Boston leading in shots on goal, 33-25, including a, 12-6, advantage in the third period alone.

The Bruins led in takeaways (13-8), while the Flyers led in blocked shots (16-13), giveaways (10-5), hits (26-25) and faceoff win% (56-44) heading into the extra frame.

Philadelphia was 0/2 and Boston was 1/3 on the power play entering overtime.

Flyers head coach, Alain Vigneault, started Hayes, Provorov and Justin Braun, while Cassidy countered with Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak and David Krejci– four forwards on a leftover 4-on-3 skater advantage.

Just 31 seconds into the overtime period, Pastrnak fired a shot pass in Bergeron’s direction, whereby the Bruins captain redirected the puck into Hart’s pads– generating a rebound.

Bergeron (6) gathered his own garbage and buried the bouncing puck into the back of the net for the game-winning goal.

Pastrnak (2) and Krejci (6) tallied the assists on Bergeron’s goal and the Bruins won, 4-3, in overtime.

Boston finished the night leading in shots on goal, 35-25, including a, 2-0, advantage in overtime alone.

Philadelphia finished Wednesday night’s action with the advantage in blocked shots (18-13), giveaways (10-5), hits (26-25) and faceoff win% (54-46).

The Flyers wrapped up the overtime loss 0/2 on the power play, while the B’s finished 3/4 on the skater advantage in their overtime win.

Boston improved to 2-2 in overtime (4-2 past regulation) this season, while Philadelphia fell to 2-1 in overtime (2-2 past regulation) overall.

With the win in the books, Bergeron, 35, became the second oldest player in Bruins history to amass 15 or more points through the team’s first 10 games of a season, trailing Bucyk (17 points in 1972-73 at age 37) for the franchise record.

Boston also improved to 5-0-0 when leading after the first period, 1-1-1 when tied after the second period and 5-0-0 when scoring the game’s first goal this season in Wednesday’s win against Philly.

The Bruins were scheduled to wrap up their road trip (2-0-1) on Friday with another matchup against the Flyers before returning home to face the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday (Feb. 6th) and Monday (Feb. 8th). 

At least four Sabres players, however, have tested positive for COVID-19 and rendered all Buffalo games postponed through Feb. 8th, which means Boston will continue to be on the road until Feb. 15th, with stops in Manhattan on Feb. 10th and 12th against the New York Rangers, as well as Long Island on Feb. 13th against the New York Islanders.