It is still early in the season, but a look at the Boston Bruins’ schedule for the year points to November as a very key month for your local NHL franchise.

While the Black and Gold should be making hay with the most home games of any month in the 2014-15 campaign, the team finds itself at mid month struggling to avoid a bailout.

A sluggish 2-4-0 start in October brought a much-needed 4-2-0 giddyup the second half to finish with a 6-6-0 slate.

Enter that aforementioned November factor with nine home games and a chance to get into a gallop. Which Boston did, reeling off four straight wins to start the month –all home games vs. Ottawa, Florida, Edmonton and New Jersey, respectively.

Then came the wallop: two stinging losses this past week to Bruin nemeses Montreal and Toronto, respectively, by a combined 11-2 score.

Ironically, Saturday is November 15, the mid-month mark — and a date with the Carolina Hurricanes, a low-pressure team looking for any rhythm at 5-7-3 overall and but one road win in that 1-5-2 record. A very important game, especially with the remaining four home games against upper-echelon teams in St. Louis, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Winnipeg.

December brings seven road games and only two contests on Causeway Street until December 21st.

While one regular season game does not make a month or season, it was very necessary for today’s Bruins matinee with the ‘Canes to be a bounce-back. Something that Claude Julien concurred pregame.

“I guess the sky has fallen for a lot of people,” Julien said pre-game, “but it hasn’t fallen for us. We’re fine here. You lose a couple of games. If you lose both of them by a goal doesn’t make it any better to me. It’s four points lost in the standings, and we’ve got to get those points back somehow and tonight’s got to be one of those games where you bounce back.”

His charges did get two of those points to diminish the effects of that mid-week wallop in the 2-1 final to improve Boston’s record to 11-8-0. Not a ton of bounce in this one, but enough to get back in the win column.

A Carolina cross-ice passing gaffe in front of goalie Cam Ward at 15:24 of the first period tied the game on Seth Griffith’s 5th goal after the Canes jumped out to a 1-0 lead — and then did not capitalize on a 5-on-3 for almost two minutes mid-way in the period.

At 19:10, the energy of Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron put the Bruins ahead; Bergeron clearing out immediate clouds of concern that might hover over TD Garden after a nifty feed from a barreling Marchand.

“The most important part of going into today’s game was upping our compete level and emotional level and our physical play,” Milan Lucic said about the key to getting the win. “It was a good start getting back on track.”

That was echoed by Julien.

“Obviously step in the right direction,” the Bruins coach said. “Certainly not where we want to be yet. But when you’ve gone through what you have in the last two games, you don’t turn the page and be where you were. We’ve got to build ourselves back up there and today was a good start.”

Credit Tuukka Rask for holding Carolina to one goal after the Bruins were outshot 16-7 in that first frame. Rask enjoyed a scoreless second period when Boston reversed the shots table, 14-3.

The Bruins had lost only 9 of 140 games since the start of the 2010-11 season with the lead entering the third period.

A third Boston goal at 11:09 by Daniel Paille was disallowed when Gregory Campbell set up too much shop in Ward’s crease.

After Ward foiled Bergeron on a breakaway with two minutes remaining, Loui Eriksson missed an open net by a puck-width with two ticks left in the 2-1 final.

Rask would keep the ‘Canes off the scoreboard in the third after facing 15 shots, all good for the game’s No. 1 star.

“I don’t think it was the most entertaining game to watch; pretty slow at times but a good win,” Rask said.

And a good time for the Bruins to giddyup back to a gallop.

See what Rask, Lucic and Patrice Bergeron had to say about the 2-1 victory on Saturday afternoon