The day before his 31st birthday, Bruins’ backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson got the nod between the pipes against a New York Islanders team that entered Friday night with 18 goals in their last four games, all wins for the Isles.

After falling behind 2-1 in the first period, the Bruins bounced back nicely, scoring the next four goals en route to a 5-3 victory, the club’s third of the year.

Happy birthday indeed, Jonas.

“Yeah, I’ll take that. It’s better than most presents I get,” Gustavsson said to the media about getting the win as a birthday present. “No, a win is always nice, but it’s better to celebrate with a win.”

After the Islanders dominated the Bruins in the opening frame by outscoring them (2-1) and outshooting them, (18-8) Claude Julien knew things had to change or else the team was heading down another dark road.

Juggling his lines a bit, the Bruins turned things around in the second and third periods to earn themselves an impressive win. The Black and Gold held the Islanders to eight shots in the final 40 minutes.

After being peppered with shots in the first, Gustavsson was happy to only see eight pucks in the middle and final stanzas.

“Yeah like I said, we came back really strong in this game,” he said. “We weren’t happy with the first period performance. So to come back and show that kind of character in the second period and really like I said, believe in what you’re doing is the right thing — was really huge. It’s always nice to be rewarded for it, too.”

Friday’s contest against the Islanders was the Bruins toughest challenge yet. Gustavsson knew it was going to be a tough task, but he certainly was ready for all the Islanders would throw at him.

“Yeah, we know they’re good in front of the net and like those back door plays and stuff like that, they’re always there. Against a team like this you have to always be aware of where one’s at,” Gustavsson said about the Islanders heavy offense.

“They scored a goal like that, their second goal and obviously the rebound on the first two. They’re around the crease and doing a good job there, but like I said too, especially the second half of the game we really took it to them and we really didn’t give them many chances to do what they wanted to do.”

Playing in the Barclays Center for the first time, the Bruins were introduced to a new building.

Originally built for basketball, the Barclays Center presents some challenges that most arenas in the National Hockey League do not.

From the lighting to the black seats, Gustavsson had no issues spotting the puck.

“We had the morning skate and it was pretty dark in there,” Gustavsson said. “To be honest, once the game started I didn’t really notice the difference. Obviously all the seats are black. But they throw a puck in the air in the first period that I had to catch and it wasn’t hard to pick it up. I don’t think it’s going to bother goalies. I didn’t think about it at all during the game.”

The Swedish netminder has by far been the better of the Bruins two goalies. Winning in both of his starts this season, Gustavsson’s start to his B’s career has been huge for the team. The former Red Wing and Maple Leaf has two of Boston’s three wins on the young season.

The emergence of Gustavsson is very important to the Bruins and for the workload of Tuukka Rask. Coming off of a season that saw Rask play in a career high 70 games, the Bruins needed a reliable backup goalie in the worst way.

“He was good in that first period and throughout the whole game. We’re going to need both [goalies] the whole way this year,” said Bruins bench boss Claude Julien. “He’s given us more confidence not to have to overuse Rask.”

Overusing Rask won’t be a problem if the Finn continues to struggle and Gustavsson continues his winning ways. We’re not close to a goalie controversy in Boston, but Claude has always gone with the hot hand and that shouldn’t change anytime soon.