The Bruins entered Thursday’s match-up with the Minnesota Wild at 8-8-1; only two of those eight wins at TD Garden. Worse still the arguable fact that only one win so far this season is against what might be considered a Stanley Cup contender in the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Count the Minnesota Wild among that elite group. At 10-4-3, Minnesota will not only play into late April, but likely May and maybe even June. The Wild were on their last stop on a four-game eastern swing with a 1-1-1 record.

Devan Dubnyk was between the Wild pipes; his career vs. Boston a juicy 0-4-0 with a 5.56 GAA.

Jonas Gustavsson was in net for Boston – his first home game in a Bruins uniform — with a 3-1 record and 2.25 GAA. His last win? That 3-1 over the Lightning Halloween night.

The Bruins jumped out to an early 1-0 lead en route to the 4-2 win when Brad Marchand scored at 5:34, Brett Connolly assisting. Five seconds later, Matt Beleskey added some snarl to the Bruins start when he and Brett Bulmer tangled for a fighting major each.

The Wild, however, without Zach Parise Thursday night sported a coveted roster that includes captain Mikko Koivu, Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville and all-world defenseman Ryan Suter.

Koivu would set up Jason Zucker at 5:12 of the second period to even the scoreboard at 1-1. Gustavsson was 1-1-0 lifetime against the Wild.

A shade past two minutes later, Loui Eriksson sent a pass by a screened Dubnyk for the 2-1 lead; David Krejci and Adam McQuaid assisted. A subsequent power play found Eriksson parked to Dubnyk’s left. He took a pass from Patrice Bergeron and upped the lead to 3-1, while Bergeron increased his best in the NHL power-play points to 12 with Torey Krug also assisting.

“Right now we’re giving up way too many goals,” Claude Julien said after the morning skate. “We’re scoring at a good pace; we’re just not defending really well right now.”

At 13:37, Jordan Schroeder was set up by Suter, cutting the margin to one goal. After two periods, the Bruins outshot the Wild, 28-18 and were 8-2 in games this season when leading by two or more goals.

The third period would belong to Boston, especially when Eriksson lit the lamp for a third time at 4:14 to complete his hat trick – the team’s first of the season — in the 4-2 final.

“Yeah,” Julien postgame, “it was better tonight. I think all the things we talked about were better.”

Here’s what we learned:

It was better, but there are few dominating games for the Bruins so far

Despite Claude Julien’s focus on focus, the team just cannot dominate — and not two in a row – yet. While they bounced back from Tuesday’s humiliation after playing their best game of the year Saturday night, Thursday’s game was held in balance – even with Eriksson’s insurance goal – until the final horn.

“I think our forwards had some good switches there in the zone,” Julien assessed, “and our Ds did a great job of stepping up and blocking some shots as well, and our goalie made the saves when he had to. So it takes all three to be successful, and all three were tonight.”

Prettiest goal of the year?

Put Eriksson on the highlight reel with his third goal of game. In a tic-tac-toe play with Krejci, Eriksson took the toe to the bank for his 9th goal of the season at 4:14 of the third period, making him tops on the team in goals scored.

“I felt really good last year,” a jubilant Eriksson said after. “I was just trying to build on it and try to get better this summer and keep it going here through this season, so it’s been working pretty good.

“I feel like something always happens when I’m standing in front. And that’s how I’ve been scoring the goals that I’ve scored this year. I have to keep doing that and keep battling in front and try to get those goals in front.”

“Loui’s been good since the beginning of the year,” Julien said postgame. “What he does bring to our team? I think people are starting to realize that he may not score 40, 50 goals, but he did score three tonight, and he is a great player in all situations.”

The team took few(er) penalties — and the penalty kill held up

The Wild had three power play opportunities, but the Achilles heel of the Black and Gold so far was taking bad penalties and giving up untimely goals. The Bruins did neither Thursday night. Well, almost. Marchand took another bad one with four minutes left in the game for hooking. That allowed Wild coach Mike Yeo to yank Dubnyk for the better part of the remainder of the game. Until the Wild took two for too many men on the ice with just under two minutes to go. Then each team took a flurry of calls in the waning seconds.

Gustavsson continues to matter

“We had planned on using him tonight,” Julien said about his backup. “So he kind of had a bit of a feeling. We kind of gave him a heads up to be prepared. We didn’t say he was in, but to be prepared, we were looking at the possibility, and he’s been good for us this year.”

“It’s still early,” Gustavsson said about his role, “but so far so good, I guess. I’m just happy when we can get the wins and that’s all that matters.”

Julien was heard

A visibly upset Julien assured the media Tuesday night that he would deal with the team’s abysmal on-ice performance internally. “We have to deal with certain things I plan on dealing with internally. This is where part of my job has to be worked on in the dressing room.”

“I think our guys were focused,” Julien said about the turnaround in 48 hours from Tuesday’s loss. “Tonight I didn’t make our pregame that complicated. I just told our guys, ‘We’ve got to keep the puck out of our net tonight, and if we do, we’ve got a chance to win, and these are the things that they do well offensively. If we can minimize the damage there, if we can defend well, we should be in good shape.’ So they went out there and executed.”

2-2 on the home stand and one game over .500 overall. Can the team win two in a row at home for the first time this season?

“I hope I can get the same result next game, with the focus and the attention to detail,” Julien said looking forward to Saturday against Toronto. “If we do that, we’re that much better.”