For the first two months of the season, the only Bruin goaltender to come out victorious was Tuukka Rask. Three other goalies all attempted to come away with a victory – Zane McIntyre, Malcolm Subban and Anton Khudobin – with each falling short in the six games that Rask did not start.

It appeared that trend would continue on Thursday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. In a game where the Bruins looked proverbially flat through the first two periods, Khudobin kept his team afloat with a number of quality saves, including a breakaway on Jeff Skinner and a 4-on-0 attempt during the second period.

The Bruins finally got on the board when Torey Krug’s point shot found its way through traffic thanks to David Backes’ play in front of Cam Ward. That goal with 31.1 seconds in regulation gave the Bruins new life. Eventually, Khudobin shut the door on Skinner once more in the shootout to secure the 2-1 victory and give the team some confidence behind Rask.

“You have to ask them that question,” Khudobin said on the Bruins gaining confidence in him.

Okay then. We’ll ask away.

“He was great,” Krug said about Khudobin. “We definitely gave them some life and some chances with odd man rushes and a couple of breakaways and he saved our behinds a few times. So, when he’s seeing the puck like he was tonight, he’s a hard goalie to beat and he earned that win for us.”

Khudobin was the star of the night for a Bruins team that absolutely needed him. The Russian netminder made 29 saves on the night. Nineteen of those stops came in the first two periods.

Not bad for a guy making his second start with the big club – following a conditioning stint in Providence – after missing nearly a month with an upper body injury.

“He deserves a lot of accolades tonight, with the way he played and the way he responded,” a relieved head coach Claude Julien said about the game’s first star after Thursday’s win at TD Garden. “After being out such a long time, you know, I think the fact that he went to Providence and played some games there really helped him get back on track.”

Sure there were differences between Khudobin’s stint in Providence and his time back with the big club. The speed of the game from the AHL to the NHL alone can make that adjustment a little difficult for a goaltender to process to when returning back to his parent club.

That hasn’t been the case for Khudobin in his last two starts. Six days after a decent outing in a losing effort against Calgary, Khudobin stayed sharp and gave the Bruins some confidence on a night where they absolutely needed a pick-me-up from their goalie.

“He was awesome tonight. He was our No. 1 star for sure,” said Riley Nash, a teammate of Khudobin’s in Carolina for a few seasons. “I think they had a few breakaways and they had a 4-on-0 too and he shut the door on everything. I thought he was fantastic and I think it was his first win of the year, too. So it was nice for him to get the monkey off his back and hopefully just get rolling now.”

Now at 1-3-0 on the season, Khudobin can breathe a little easier now that he’s off the schneid.

“It feels awesome,” Khudobin said about win No. 1. “Whenever you can get the ‘W’ – nothing can feel better.”