The Boston Bruins beat the clock on Saturday afternoon.

Less than 23 hours later, they beat Old Man Time.

After a dramatic game-tying goal by Brad Marchand with 14 ticks left in regulation – and the game-winner over the Flyers in OT, the Black and Gold faced the shortest possible turnaround to a 12:30 p.m. national TV audience 22 1/2 hours later.

With Daylight Savings Time coincidentally in effect between games, the Bruins barely had time for a burger and a beer before bagging it back to TD Garden for another key game – this one against the rested Detroit Red Wings.

Two other time factors were also against the local team: Boston was playing yet another back-to-back game, and the original starting time for Sunday’s affair was 7:30 p.m.

“We’re not going to say we love that many back-to-backs,” Claude Julien said at his pregame meeting about Boston’s 12th of 16 scheduled, “but it’s part of the game.”

Boston was a lowly 4-7-0 in the back-end games.

The rescheduling to 12:30, Claude?

“The TV rights overrule whatever rules are in place there with the NHL,” said the Bruins bench boss. “So we’ve just got to go about our business here and do our jobs, simple as that.”

So, what’s the plan to deal with today’s 60 minutes?

“This is going to be one heck of a challenge,” Julien said. “This is not only under 24 hours turnaround, but you’re playing a team that’s extremely good and that’s got the [league’s] No. 1 power play. So discipline is certainly going to be one of the keys. We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot here by making some sloppy plays. We’ve had success against Detroit by moving our feet and getting a good forecheck going, so we’ve got to make sure that we push ourselves as much as we can here in order to make that happen.”

At 4:15 Marchand picked up where he left off, picking the pocket of Wings’ defenseman Stephen Weiss with Reilly Smith in the sin bin. In alone on backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, Marchand deked Gustavsson right before slipping the puck left. It was Marchand’s 22nd overall and second shorthanded goal of the season.

The Wings pounced on sloppy play along the Boston boards shortly after and Gustav Nyquist used Adam McQuaid as a screen, firing a 20-footer past Boston backup Niklas Svedberg at 7:01.

Dougie Hamilton hit a post; then David Pastrnak loaded up his stick in the left faceoff circle and rifled a 15-foot wrist shot past Gustavsson with Milan Lucic and Reilly Smith assisting on the power play. It was Pastrnak’s eighth goal in 29 games played.

This one had all the makings of a shootout – in regulation.

No signs of fatigue for Boston after 20 minutes, while outshooting Detroit, 16-12.

In the second period, the most rested player in Boston’s lineup kept Detroit off the scoreboard. Svedberg, with several labeled for twine, stopped all 10 shots faced. While the most unusual of the unusual occurred after the vaunted Wings power play went 0-4 through 40 minutes.

With Gregory Campbell in the box, Daniel Paille put Boston up, 3-1, stealing the puck at center ice, racing in alone and beating Gustavsson for the second shorthanded goal of the game, his fourth this season and the team’s eighth shorthanded tally.

Paille potted his second of the game, and fifth of the season, with a minute left off a Max Talbot cycle down low. The newest Bruin shoveled the puck out to Paille who promptly deposited it past Gustavsson with Campbell also assisting.

The Wings turned to starter Jimmy Howard in the third period, hoping the clock would be on their side for the last 20 minutes.

“I’m sure that their coach after the second period said to them that this should be a tired team and we still have an opportunity here,” Julien said. “Just making a change in goal for them showed that he wasn’t throwing the towel in. We knew they were gonna come out hard.”

Svedberg took a snooze at 1:42 when Luke Glendening wristed a 20-footer five-hole that can only be labeled “soft” out of politeness.

“The only fresh guy we had there was our goaltender,” Julien commended. “I know there was a goal that trickles in on him, but he made some other big saves to keep us in the game.”

The team with the 23rd best (or worst) power play in the league, however, countered at 4:03, upping the score to 5-2 with its second man-advantage goal when Loui Eriksson poked a Patrice Bergeron rebound 5-hole past Howard for his 16th of the season; Ryan Spooner also assisting.

Detroit’s power play finally clicked two minutes later when newly acquired Marek Zidlicky beat Svedberg to make it a 2-goal game.

With noticeable fatigue setting in, it was tick, tick, tick, just get this one over as Detroit spent most of the last 10 minutes in Boston’s end.

“Sooner or later,” Julien said, “I think we were gonna feel the fatigue. So it was to try and stay composed.”

That Boston did, catching a breather with four minutes left when Riley Sheahan was assessed two for hooking. But Detroit – with Howard pulled – threw all they had left in their tank at Svedberg, outshooting Boston 17-7 overall in the third period of the 5-3 final.

“They were going to come with a push and we got a goal and they pushed harder,” Svedberg said. “I think we stood up good.”

In the end, who would believe the Bruins – on 22 and a half hour rest would put up five goals; two power play and two shorthanded?

“That’s probably the tale of the game right there,” Julien conveyed, “is the special teams that made a big difference. I thought in the first period our forecheck was extremely good, allowed us to spend some time in their end, but once we stopped putting the puck in deep or they started playing with the puck a little bit more it was a little bit more difficult. We showed some great character there to come out today and skate and work as hard as we did.”

A character-building weekend for the stretch run?

“Well, I hope so,” Julien concluded. “We’re going to Ottawa here on Tuesday and there’s another team that is breathing down our necks. We hope that we built enough momentum there that we can carry that into Ottawa.”

And beyond.

Seventeen games left before the post-season begins — and the Bruins are starting to look (maybe) like a contender.