BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins can finally breathe -- sort of.

One of their toughest stretches of the season is complete, and they finished with a 3-1-1 record against some solid opponents. On Monday, the Bruins played well and earned a point with their 3-2 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden.

This five-game stretch in 10 days for the Bruins included wins over the Carolina Hurricanes, St. Louis Blues and Columbus Blue Jackets, and a loss to the Montreal Canadiens. It’s been impressive the way the Bruins have played, given all the injuries the team has dealt with.

"We know we have a lot of work to do, but the effort is there. It's really good to see that we're not giving up on anything, and even though we have some injuries, guys are showing up and playing hard," Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask said.

Before hosting the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night, the Bruins will have three days of practice to fine-tune their game.

Meanwhile, the Bruins are trying to play their game to the best of their ability, but the offense has been limited. Through 23 games, Boston is ranked 21st in goals per game, averaging 2.48 in that category. It doesn't help that top-line center David Krejci has missed 11 games with an undisclosed injury, and his absence disrupts the entire lineup, forcing coach Claude Julien to switch up his lines in search of offense.

"I don't think we're getting enough bodies to the net. That's where a lot of goals in this league are scored," said Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who returned to the lineup Monday after missing the past three games due to injury. "When you're having a tough time scoring goals, then you've got to get back to playing dirty and get some ugly ones."

It also doesn't help that the Bruins have had four would-be goals disallowed in the past five games, including two against the Penguins.

With Boston trailing 1-0, it appeared the Bruins had tied the game at the 10-minute mark of the first period, but after review it was ruled that Patrice Bergeron knocked the puck in with a high stick and the goal was disallowed.

Julien's concern after the game was that the closest referee to the play signaled it was a goal, but the three other officials overturned it because they saw a high stick on the play. The NHL's situation room confirmed the officials' call.

"I don't know what the league looked at. When I looked at the replay, it looked more inconclusive," Julien said. "Now, they may contradict me and say they had a better angle from where they were, but that's how it looked to me."

With the game tied at 2-2, the Bruins' Carl Soderberg thought he had the go-ahead goal at 10:53 of the second period, but the on-ice officials signaled Soderberg knocked the puck in with his glove, and after review the call stood.

Julien thought the puck ricocheted off the player's chest and not his glove. The coach said he watched it time and again in slow motion, and it could have gone either way.

"It gets frustrating with the guys working so hard and feeling like you played well enough to win, but you come out of here losing in overtime when you thought you scored enough goals to win," Julien said.

And it's not only the non-goals. Goalie interference penalties also have hurt the Bruins this season, including Monday night when Reilly Smith sat in the box for two minutes for the infraction. Boston is at its best when it crashes the net and creates havoc in front of opposing goaltenders, but the Bruins are finding that it's a fine line between being physical in front and making contact with the goalie.

"It means we're doing the right things and guys are going to the net hard. We want to keep doing that, and eventually those goals are going to come," Marchand said.

Normally when they face the Penguins, the Bruins have the services of captain Zdeno Chara, who is considered one of the best shutdown defensemen in the league. On Monday, the Penguins' Evgeni Malkin scored a pair of goals, while teammate Sidney Crosby chipped in one against the undermanned Bruins.

"They played really well, they are a tough team to play against," the Penguins' Kris Letang said. "They are really good defensively; they have a great goaltender and they have a good system. You just have to make sure you don't go off your game plan."

Now that this stretch is over, the Bruins have one more game at home Friday before heading out on a difficult West Coast trip, where they will face Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose.

"We always know that those trips out west are not easy, and somehow we have to figure out how we're going to come away from that road trip with a winning record and put full focus on that," Rask said.