But the Bruins also suffered a loss in the first period, when defenseman Adam McQuaid went down with an undisclosed injury.
With 2:29 left in the opening frame, McQuaid went to hit Philadelphia forward Mike Richards at the side of the Boston net, but McQuaid missed on the hit and crashed headfirst into the end boards. He remained down on the ice for several minutes before getting off the ice with some help from several of his teammates.
McQuaid went straight to the locker room and did not return. He was taken to Jefferson Hospital for observation, but was cleared to return to Boston with the team Monday night.
"Adam is coming back home with us," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "He was sent to the hospital for evaluation. I don't know the whole details there, which we'll probably share with you guys tomorrow if we can. But he's coming back with us, so that's a good sign in itself."
With McQuaid out for the majority of the game and the contest extended nearly a full extra period, the rest of Boston's defense was called upon to log a ton of minutes.
"Quaider is a big part of our defense corps but we just tried to keep short shifts, make sure to change when we can, and try to keep things simple and get it in deep and spend some more time down there," said defenseman Johnny Boychuk, who played 28:50 with seven shots and five hits.
Dennis Seidenberg was the main ironman, logging a game-high 36:44 and finishing a plus-3 with four shots and six blocked shots. Zdeno Chara played 31:35 and was a plus-1 with three shots, two hits and four blocked shots, Andrew Ference played 27:59 with four blocked shots and Tomas Kaberle played 19:34 and was a plus-1 with an assist and two blocked shots.
"Our D I think did a great job stepping up," Julien said. "They really played a lot. Our top four D's had a lot of ice time and it looked like both teams really had a short bench tonight and you could tell in overtime the fatigue was setting in on both sides and it was a matter of will and desire. Somebody had to find a way to win, and that's the one thing we did well. We found a way to win."
