It wasn’t pretty, and they were far from effective at times, but the Bruins found a way to get a much-needed two points.

Deadlocked at 1-1 late in the third, Patrice Bergeron fired a power play goal past Flames goaltender Joni Ortio for his 24th of the season. The goal snapped a skid of nine straight attempts without tallying a goal on the man advantage.

Sure the 2-1 win gave the Bruins two big points as they try to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference playoff race. At the same time, there are still plenty of concerns during a trying year on Causeway Street.

“It’s big points that we need,” said a relieved Bergeron, who tied Don Marcotte for 10th place on the team’s all-time goal scoring list with 230.

“You know, I thought we didn’t generate enough shots early on and in the third it was way better. You could see we were more assertive with our plays and making better decisions and putting pucks on net. But yeah, the two points were really important for us, and it was something that we talked about that we know how hard the schedule is coming up.”

That schedule includes dates with Stanley Cup contenders Chicago (Thursday) and Washington (Saturday) at TD Garden, a place where they have not won two in a row since beating the Penguins and Devils back on the 16th and 20th of December. Not ideal for any team in the NHL, especially one that is just 14-16-3 in their friendly confines.

If Tuesday was any indication — and this season for that matter — they’ll be in for a long night against the favorites to win the East and the West.

In a game against a Flames team that is pretty much in tank mode — and a squad that is one of the worst defensive teams in the league — the Black and Gold didn’t get their 10th shot on goal until there was 2:37 left in the second period. Perhaps all of this is contributed in part to adding three new guys to the lineup — trade deadline acquisitions Lee Stempniak and John-Michael Liles and the callup of Noel Acciari from Providence.

Either way, that will not bode well come Thursday when they play the defending champs or Saturday when they try to solve Braden Holtby and company.

“Yeah we play against the Caps and the Hawks – they’re two of the best teams in the league,” Ryan Spooner said. “They have a lot of speed and skill. So I think the approach for us is just try to keep to the outside, and I guess just try to build off of the win tonight.”

That approach of keeping the opposition is what they tried to do against the Flames defensively, and, for the most part, they did that well. For all of their struggles generating any offense, the defense created takeaways and blocked shots and was a little more well-rounded despite Tuukka Rask having to bail them out on a few occasions.

Building off their defensive and third period performance is something that the B’s have to build on, and they need to do that for 60 minutes. Otherwise, they’ll be run out of their building, again, against the Blackhawks and Capitals. And it doesn’t get any easier after that as they travel to the Sunshine State for games against the Lightning and Panthers on back-to-back nights.

For a team that still has some holes and failed to make a major impact at the trade deadline, some interesting times are ahead for the Bruins as they look to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.