BOSTON — The Boston Bruins have already put their brutal October behind them.

The defending Stanley Cup champions opened November with a 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night, getting back-to-back goals from Johnny Boychuk and Daniel Paille 47 seconds apart to break open a tie game in the third period.

After going 3-7 in October, the Bruins looked much more like the team that hoisted the Cup in June than the bumbling bunch that returned this fall and finished the opening month with the worst record in the Eastern Conference.

“We were dumping the puck well, retrieving the puck well. I thought that you just could tell we were getting better and better every shift that we did that,” said Chris Kelly, who had a goal and an assist. “I thought for the most part that was the most consistent effort that we’ve had so far this year.”

Zdeno Chara had two assists for the Bruins, who ended the Senators’ six-game winning streak.

Boston outshot Ottawa 41-26 and shut down the NHL’s top power play, holding Ottawa scoreless on three chances with the man advantage. Ottawa had 13 power-play goals in its first 12 games.

The Bruins controlled the second period and took a 3-2 lead on goals by Patrice Bergeron and Kelly, then put in two more after Ottawa’s Jared Cowen tied it at 3-all on his first NHL goal with 14:56 left in the game.

Boychuk gave Boston a 4-3 lead with a slap shot from the point for his first goal of the season, and less than a minute later Shawn Thornton tipped a pass to Paille for a breakaway goal that put the Bruins up by two.

That was a big enough cushion for Tim Thomas (4-4), who had 23 saves.

Craig Anderson (6-3) stopped 36 shots for Ottawa, which hadn’t lost since Oct. 18.

“I think the Stanley Cup champions showed up and they decided they wanted to play. They were determined to win, and the solutions that we had for them weren’t working,” Ottawa Coach Paul MacLean said. “They were quicker than us. They were on the puck better than we were. They made us play in our end way, way too much. When those things happen, bad things happen.”