Halfway into February, The Hub of Hockey was crying in its beer about the distinct possibility of the season ending on April 11, the last game of the regular season – against Tampa Bay.

But a fortunate thing happened as February morphed into March. The Black and Gold came out of early hibernation, reeling off six wins in their last eight to put some space between the playoff pack.

A 6-2-2 mark in their last 10 created a six-point cushion over Florida for the No. 8 slot for post-season play with 14 to go after Thursday’s battle with the Bolts.

Before that first win — in Chicago, 6-2, on February 22 — the Bruins dropped two of three to legitimate Stanley Cup Contenders – the Rangers and Canadiens. The win? A squeaker past the newest-contender Islanders, 2-1.

Of Boston’s last 15 games, three were against teams worth the house money to parade Lord Stanley.

Peruse the remaining calendar and it points to why Thursday’s tangle with the Lightning was equally important to a possible two points in the standings. Take the Red Wings and Anaheim out of the Cup equation, and only the Rangers and Penguins — and Tampa — remain on tap down the stretch as litmus tests for any possible conversation about parades on Causeway Street in June.

Of the aforementioned Cup contenders, it is Tampa Bay that boasts some serious stats to stake its claim to a second Cup since 2004, and a good test of where the Bruins shape up against the NHL’s iron.

Not to mention that Thursday’s matchup might well foreshadow one of the first rounds of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

At 7-3 in their last 10, Tampa came to Boston fresh off an OT win in Montreal Tuesday night, 1-0, its fourth consecutive. Losing three key players for a series of weeks, Ondrej Palat, Braydon Coburn and Cedric Paquette does not help their stretch run. Nonetheless, the Lightning lead the league in ROW wins — regulation and overtime — with 40; have the most potent offense in the league with the highest goal production (233); and goal differential at plus-46.

They have an astounding five players among the NHL’s top-10 in the impressive plus-minus category, led by Nikita Kucherov’s plus-33, Tyler Johnson’s plus-31, Palat’s plus-28, Jason Garrison’s plus-24, and Anton Stralman at plus-22. To put that in perspective, Boston’s Milan Lucic and Reilly Smith are tied for the team lead at plus-11 each with Torey Krug and David Pastrnak next at plus-10 apiece.

The Lightning also have four 20-plus goal scorers, led by Steven Stamkos’s 36 to Boston’s one, Brad Marchand at 22.

Then put big Ben Bishop – formerly of University of Maine fame – in the picture with his Vezina-worthy stats of 33-11-3 and a 2.34 GAA, and the local boys had their work cut out for them at TD Garden.

How to bottle all that lightening?

“I think we’re maybe a little underrated,” Claude Julien assessed after Thursday’s morning skate, “when it comes to people thinking we can’t skate. I think that’s a wrong assessment and we’ve proven it whether it’s been Chicago or those kind of teams. We can skate and the biggest thing when we struggle against quick teams is because our transition game is poor and we’re just not skating to the areas that we should be skating at. It’s more of our game taking a step back vs. us not being able to handle it.”

Tampa is indeed one of “those kind of (quick) teams.” But the Bruins did have a few things in their favor before first faceoff.

The Bolts had not won at TD Garden in the past nine regular-season games; Bishop has never beaten the B’s in his four career starts; Tuukka Rask sported an 8-2-0 lifetime mark with a 2.09 GAA.

David Pastrnak kept Boston’s first-goal-scoring streak intact at 10 games when he deflected a Ryan Spooner shot off his skate past Bishop at 7:57.

As Tampa showed 48 hours earlier, they can play some defense.

Stamkos countered, unassisted at 15:29 even the score.

Goose eggs in the second period for each team, with Tampa outshooting Boston, 16-4.

Patrice Bergeron reversed that trend, inching closer to the 20-goal mark when he wristed a 30-footer from inside the blue line past a dozing Bishop at 2:20 of the final period or his 19th of the season.

At 8:04, Vladislav Namestnikov, poked a rebound 5-hole past Rask and the game was back at even, 2-2.

Carl Soderberg — without a goal since January 17 — hit the post at the halfway mark.

“I think about it,” Soderberg said about his drought, “but I’m just trying to focus on a strong effort for the team. It’s going to come at some point.”

With 60 ticks left, Alex Kilorn trickled one past an open net, and the teams headed to OT – Boston for the 12^th time at 8-3; Tampa Bay sixth time at 3-2.

Fifty-one seconds into the extra session, matching penalties gave a glimpse of the prospect of a 3-on-3 overtime with dazzling play as each team went back and forth with game-winning opportunities.

“I’d rather do the 3-on-3 than a shootout,” Marchand said postgame.

“Well, it’s a preview, right of what they’re going to be talking about,” Julien said about possible changes to the OT format. “So, not doubt there’s a lot more room for the skilled players and we had some great opportunities on it.”

In a rarer OT situation, Matt Bartkowski took a penalty, giving what might be a 3-on-2 for Tampa, but the rule requires going back to a 4-on-3.

Regardless, neither team could break the deadlock.

In the shootout, Bergeron rifled one past Bishop in round one, and Jonathan Drouin clanged iron behind Rask in round two. That put Brad Marchand in position to seal the deal in round 3, which he promptly did for the 3-2 final.

Tuukka Rask was No. 1 star with 35 saves, especially the plethora in the second period.

“That’s a very good team over there, so we’re happy with this one,” Marchand said.

“It was one of those games,” Julien echoed, “where you have to play against teams that have had a lot of success, have a lot of confidence in themselves, and tonight we came out there and showed that we had a lot of confidence in our group and played like it.”

 

“We know that we can play against anybody in this league,” Rask summed up. “We’ve shown that. Maybe not the wins, buy we’ve played good against good hockey teams. Today was a good example of that.”

 

Next example of a litmus test for Boston?

 

Saturday night in Pittsburgh.