For a long stretch of the second period, when his team was outshot, 15-3, Anton Khudobin was excellent.  

When Alex Burrows’s shot from behind the goal line slipped in with 0.6 seconds remaining on the clock in the second, Khudobin was not good. 

But over a 60-minute window Saturday afternoon, Khudobin was good enough to backstop the Bruins to a 4-3 win over the Canucks, which is all the Bruins have asked of the backup and fellow No. 2 Zane McIntyre.  

“Let’s be funny and sarcastic,’’ said Khudobin, whose only other win took place Dec. 1 against Carolina. “Hopefully I’m going to get the third win earlier than the second.’’ 

Nobody believed Khudobin would require four AHL assignments this season — not himself, not his employer, and not the coach who paid the price partly because of the position’s leaks. For Khudobin, the puck that once seemed so easy to stop has, at times, shrunk to the size of a snowflake.  

So it was especially fulfilling for Khudobin that when Tuukka Rask needed a break and the Bruins required a 2-point result, a 29-save effort was good enough for the win. 

“I was just focusing on my game,’’ Khudobin said. “I was just like, ‘Don’t think about anything else. I have a game. There’s the rush. There’s the players. I have to see the shot. I have to stop the puck.’ ’’ 

Backup goaltending has been one of the Bruins’ most troublesome flareups. Before Saturday, Rask had recorded 26 of the team’s 27 wins. The position’s leakiness has compounded the team’s issues. Khudobin and McIntyre have cost the team points when they’ve played. They’ve also forced Rask to play more and experience a dip in performance because they lost Claude Julien’s trust. 

“Very strong game,’’ coach Bruce Cassidy said of Khudobin. “Certainly gave us a chance to win. A number of breakdowns in front of him led to quality chances that he was there to make the save on. Very happy for him. He’s worked hard on his game. We scored a big goal late in the game to get him the win. I think it’s a bit of a monkey off his back.’’  

Khudobin came through. The No. 2 goalie had help from another category that’s been a drag: secondary scoring. 

The Bruins have asked Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand to do everything aside from sell popcorn. They’ve delivered on most occasions.  

On Saturday, it did not matter that Bergeron and Marchand combined for zero points on four shots. The No. 3 threesome of Frank Vatrano, Ryan Spooner, and Jimmy Hayes delivered in the rare game in which the first line went quiet. 

Vatrano’s defensive-zone wall work, Hayes’s middle drive to push back Alex Edler and open a passing lane, and Spooner’s dish opened up Kevan Miller to fire a game-tying shot past Ryan Miller at 13:33 of the first.  

Vatrano, the triggerman on the No. 2 power-play unit, received a David Krejci cross-ice feed and winged the puck past Miller at 19:22 of the first.  

Hayes’s dip into Ben Hutton’s pocket, Vatrano’s return chip into the offensive zone, and Hayes’s backhand dish opened up Colin Miller to hammer in a go-ahead slapper at 2:12 of the third. 

It was a good day at the office for a left wing who missed more than two months, a center who’s played most of the year at wing, and a right wing who’s been a healthy scratch 15 times.  

“Vatrano winning a puck on the wall, Spooner coming underneath with speed through the neutral zone, Jimmy Hayes driving the net, the D coming late,’’ Cassidy said of Kevan Miller’s goal. “These are things we’re going to ask that line to do on a regular basis. That should help them create offense. That was a great reward for them. I thought defensively, they were solid for the most part. We’ll look at it a little closer. There was no apprehension calling their name and throwing them out on the ice tonight. That will only ingratiate themselves with their teammates and the coaching staff when they contribute offensively, are solid defensively, and play a good 200-foot game. Good for them. We need secondary scoring. We got lots of it tonight.’’ 

The No. 3 line’s performance helped the Bruins overcome the gut punch of allowing a goal with just 0.6 ticks left before the expiration of the second period. Burrows fired from behind the line. Khudobin believed he had the strong-side post sealed. But somehow, Burrows’s shot slipped under Khudobin’s lead pad, thudded off his trail pad, and crossed the line to tie the game, 2-2.  

Khudobin didn’t crumble in the third. Only one of nine shots got through — a Markus Granlund power-play snipe from the slot. 

“It’s not easy,’’ Khudobin said of the season and his back-and-forth assignments between Boston and Providence. “But at the end of the day, you have to find your game and you have to help the team get the W. No matter how it’s going to happen, you just need to get it done. I’m really glad and happy we got the win tonight.’’