As two of the division’s best a year ago, the Bruins knew their quick two-game trip to Florida wouldn’t be easy. After a 2-1 victory Tuesday night in Sunrise against the Panthers, the Bruins were looking for their third win in a row, and second of the Florida leg in Tampa Bay Thursday night.

Behind Tuukka Rask’s 27 saves and nine more in the shootout, the Bruins beat the Bolts, 4-3, to finish the four-game road trip with six of a possible eight points.

Here is what we learned:

Unlikely pair steps up in the shootout:

The struggles of the Bruins’ third line have been well documented. Matt Beleskey, Riley Nash and Jimmy Hayes have combined for zero points. In what some see as an attempt to send a message to the trio, Beleskey was a healthy scratch and replaced with a debuting Sean Kuraly.

After another no-show of a performance through regulation and overtime by Nash and Hayes, the two were called upon in the fourth and tenth rounds of the shootout, respectively, on Thursday night. The two were the only Bruins to score in the skills competition, leading the team to victory.

Although the goals won’t show up in the scoresheet, they were indeed big goals for a Bruins team that is trying to stash as many points as they can during their early season struggles.

Goalies steal the show in shootout:

Shootouts are not the most exciting form of entertainment for some, but it was hard to not be amazed by some of the saves by Rask and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning. From Vasilevskiy’s quick pad stop on David Krejci to Rask’s stick save of Tyler Johnson, the goalies got their monies worth last night.

Brandon Carlo continues to shine

The more Brandon Carlo plays, the better he seems to get, and that was evident Thursday night. Carlo got the Bruins on the board first, somehow sneaking a puck past Vasilevskiy from a near impossible angle. Carlo continued his impressive night in his own zone as he continues to quickly develop into a solid top-four defenseman.

Power play finally strikes

The Bruins power play this season has been flat out ugly. The team converted on a league-worst 6.3 percent of their power play opportunities heading into Thursday’s contest. With J.T. Brown in the box for high-sticking, Ryan Spooner lit the lamp for the second time this season. Spooner’s goal snapped a five-game drought marked the end of a five-game drought for the power play. Their last goal on the man advantage came during the Bruins’ 4-2 loss to the Canadiens on October 22.

It’s no secret the Bruins have struggled to put the puck in the net and their lack of a power play presence is not helping. But if the Bruins can start to convert on some of these power plays, the scoring may be contagious.

The Bruins can only hope.