OTTAWA – Tim Thomas and the Boston Bruins have put their lost October well behind them.

Thomas made 47 saves, Daniel Paille scored twice and Boston extended its winning streak to three games with a 5-2 victory against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night.

Rich Peverley and Patrice Bergeron each had a goal and an assist, and Chris Kelly also scored for the Bruins, who won for the second straight night to move atop the Eastern Conference standings. Andrew Ference had two assists.

Boston, which went 3-7 in October, has 41 points and one more win than Philadelphia.

“We were behind the 8-ball there at the beginning of the season,” Thomas said. “It was a tough start for us and tough overcoming that Stanley Cup hangover. We’ve definitely turned it around.”

The Bruins have gone 17-2-1 since Nov. 1, when they launched a 10-game winning streak with a 5-3 win over Ottawa.

“To be honest, I didn’t know that,” said Kelly, who restored Boston’s one-goal lead in the second.

“I think that’s maybe a good thing, that we’re just playing every game. There are still points of our game that we can get better at and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza each had a goal and an assist for the Senators, who are on a 2-4-2 skid despite an overtime victory Tuesday night at Buffalo.

“They’re a team that we know clogs it up in the neutral zone very well,” Alfredsson said. “Unfortunately we couldn’t get as many goals as we would have liked on the chances we created in the first two periods.”

Craig Anderson stopped 24 shots for Ottawa.

Tuukka Rask recorded his first shutout of the season Tuesday night as the Bruins beat Los Angeles 3-0 in their first game without defenseman Zdeno Chara.

The Boston captain missed his second straight game after injuring his left knee Saturday in Columbus.

The Senators were without Milan Michalek, who sustained a concussion Tuesday night. Michalek was injured in a collision with teammate Erik Karlsson after scoring his NHL-leading 19th goal earlier in the game.

Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid was given a major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct after he stuck out his leg to trip up Nick Foligno 17:45 into the second.

 

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