Marc Savard swapped his hockey helmet for a construction hard hat as he held court after the Boston Bruins beat the Canadiens 2-1 in overtime last night.

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"It's something the guys award after every game," Savard explained. "It goes to a hard worker, a guy who makes a big hit or blocks a couple of shots or gets the game winner. Tonight, I got it."

Savard got it last night because he did a little bit of everything, but mostly because he did the dirty work on the Bruins' first-period goal by Milan Lucic and then scored the winner at 9:25 of the first overtime.

The winning goal came on a delayed penalty after Bryan Smolinski hooked Peter Schaefer.

"I came on for the extra skater," Savard said. "Schaefer made a great play for us. He's had a tough go this year but he worked through it. He draws the penalty on the rush and then he set me up. I was yelling at the top of my lungs but I knew he saw me."

Schaefer found Savard in the faceoff circle to the left of Carey Price, and he made a perfect shot to end more than a year of frustration for the Bruins.

The immediate result is that the Bruins have new life in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal. The Canadiens lead 2-1 but the Bruins have an opportunity to draw even here tomorrow night (7 p.m., CBC, RDS, CJAD Radio-800).

The win also helped the Bruins overcome a psychological hurdle. Going into last night's game, they were 0-10 against the Canadiens and had lost 13 consecutive games dating back to last season.

Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said his team played well except for the first period and that was the difference in the game.

The Bruins came out with some desperation and dominated the period. They also scored the only goal as Savard won a battle along the side boards and found Lucic in the slot at 6:30. It marked the first time this season that the Canadiens found themselves behind against the Bruins.

The Canadiens got that one back when Tom Kostopoulos scored at 4:26 of the second period. Kostopoulos led the Canadiens with four shots on goal and that might have been part of their problem.

"We need all four lines to go," said Steve Bégin, who plays on the line with Kostopoulos and Smolinski. "Our line's doing good. We're playing hard, we're getting the puck in deep but the last two games, we haven't been doing that as a team.

"We have to pay the price and work," Bégin added. "We can't make mistakes, especially in our end, because they're not going to give us anything. Tonight, they worked harder than us."

It was a big night for both goaltenders but especially the much-maligned Tim Thomas. who saved his best saves for the overtime. Thomas used a skate save to stop Tom Kostopoulos from close range early in the first overtime and made a glove save on Bégin a few minutes later.

Price's win streak ended at nine games, but the rookie goaltender stopped 29 shots and made three game-saving stops in the third period. He stopped David Krejci on a pair of breakaways and stopped Savard during a power play.

The power play was not a factor in the game.

Gazette Stars: 1. Tim Thomas; 2. Carey Price; 3. Marc Savard.

phickey@thegazette.canwest.com