As good as the Boston Bruins have been over the last couple of weeks, they’ve also benefitted from a few breaks along the way.

Take for example Saturday’s 2-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, who were without the dynamic duo of Sidney Crosby (illness) and Evgeni Malkin (injured during the first period).

Some would diminish this win for the Black and Gold after the Pens lost their superstars. On the other hand, they took advantage of the opportunity and earned their fifth straight win thanks to a stellar performance from Tuukka Rask (30 saves), who earned his third shutout of the season and 25th of his career – good for a tie for fifth in team history with the legendary Gerry Cheevers.

“I know they missed a lot of good pieces, but at the end of the day, it’s a team that comes and plays hard and they made a game of it,” Claude Julien told the media during his postgame press conference at the Consol Energy Center. “We played them well. It was a good, close contest. Tuukka was good for us and a big goal by [Milan Lucic] to give us that one-goal cushion there.”

Teams fighting for a playoff spot need to take advantage of opportunities. Teams looking to keep a playoff spot — and also look to surpass teams ahead of them in the standings — need to get a few breaks along the way.

The Bruins have done both lately. They created distance from the pack chasing them for their wild card spot and earned some huge victories against the Flyers and Senators to dampen their postseason hopes. They also got a few breaks in this span, and not just from lucky bounces either. Against the Sens and Red Wings, they had the luxury of facing Craig Anderson over Andrew Hammond and Jonas Gustavsson. In their shootout against the Lightning – to go along with the rash of injuries Tampa faced – they avoided Steven Stamkos in a shootout, who was ineligible after throwing a broken stick into the stands in overtime and was called for a 10-minute misconduct.

Things were no different on Saturday when they avoided Crosby and Malkin. The B’s also had the benefit of facing backup goalie Thomas Greiss over Marc-Andre Fleury.

“I didn’t know Crosby wasn’t playing until five minutes left in the first and obviously with Malkin leaving the game,” Rask recalled to the press, “they’re a different team when those two guys are missing and it makes my job easier I guess.”

“They still have some great talent and some good skills and some hard workers on their team,” Bergeron added about the Penguins. “It was still a battle, it was a grind, but I thought we stuck with it, we played them hard and Tuukka made some huge saves for us.”

For a team that was hanging on to the final wild card spot by a thread, the B’s have created seperation from the teams chasing them in the wild card race. They are 8-1-1 in their last 10 and have tied the Washington Capitals for seventh place with the two teams squaring off Sunday night in the nation’s capital.

“We have an opportunity to catch a team that’s ahead of us,” Julien told the media. “That’s an opportunity we haven’t had in a long time.”

There’s no denying the Bruins are getting some great performances from Rask over the past 10 games. Brad Marchand is finding his stride, Ryan Spooner and David Pastrnak are providing a breath of fresh air, they’ve scored first in 11 straight games, and they’re looking more like a well-rounded team primed to make a run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs – all of this without David Krejci.

Julien’s bunch have also gotten some breaks along the way. But they’re playing with the cards being dealt in front of them, and taking advantage of opportunities. That’s all that matters this late into the 2014-15 season.