BOSTON – Not even an unidentified flying food object could keep the Boston Bruins from their best start in more than 40 years.

Tyler Seguin’s goal on the first shot of the shootout was nullified because the item was thrown from the stands onto the ice toward New Jersey goalie Johan Hedberg.

Additional Photos

Tuukka Rask of the Bruins sprawls to make a save on David Clarkson of New Jersey during the shootout phase of Boston’s 2-1 victory Tuesday night. The Associated Press

Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins is welcomed by teammates Tuesday night after scoring a shootout goal that proved the winner against the Devils. The Associated Press

So Seguin tried again — and scored again. Ilya Kovalchuk then tied it for the Devils.

After both teams failed on their next four tries, Brad Marchand scored the goal that gave the Bruins a 2-1 win Tuesday night when the final shot, by New Jersey’s Marek Zidlicky, was stopped by Tuukka Rask’s pad.

“That’s a first,” Seguin said. “I’m still not sure what it was. Maybe a hot dog.”

One of the officials tossed it in the penalty box and left before being asked exactly what it was.

“It looked yellow,” said Seguin, whose first shot went over Hedberg’s left arm and whose second cleared the goalie’s right arm.

His goal set the stage for Marchand’s game-winner between Hedberg’s pads. It gave the Bruins a 5-0-1 record for an Eastern Conference-best 11 points.

They also opened the 1970-71 season with 11 points, the last time they earned at least one in each of their first six games.

“We’ve played some pretty good hockey so far,” Bruins Coach Claude Julien said. “And the games that weren’t quite as good as we should have been, we found a way to win. And to be a good team you’ve got to be able to do that.”

Marchand did, scoring the first shootout goal of his career.

“All I could hear was (Seguin) saying, ‘go high, go high,’ ” he said, “but I just kind of blacked out. I don’t know what happened. I’m serious. I blacked out.”

Nathan Horton’s goal with 4:05 left in the third period forced overtime after David Clarkson scored on a power play at 8:30 of the second period.

But the game came down to a shootout, and the Devils led the NHL last season with 12 shootout wins.

“They got it this time,” Hedberg said. “I think it’s sort of a tossup when you get to a shootout.”

The Devils remained unbeaten in regulation but fell to 3-0-2.

“We made a couple of mistakes at the end and we’ve got to control the puck a little bit better,” Patrik Elias of New Jersey said. “They have big guys up front and in the back, too, and it’s tough to get some opportunities to make some plays on that space.”

The victory was Boston’s second in two nights in which it took the lead late in the game. In Monday night’s 5-3 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes, David Krejci scored the tiebreaking goal on a pass from rookie defenseman Dougie Hamilton with 1:50 left. Seguin added an empty-net goal with eight seconds remaining.

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