BOSTON (AP) – Neither the Boston Bruins nor the Montreal Canadiens were complaining about a day off Monday.

The fierce rivals split a pair of overtime games over the weekend on consecutive nights in different cities. Monday was a day for both teams to catch their breath.

“Both teams have played hard,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “I don’t think there’s a team that has an edge when it comes to that. We’ve played the same kind of minutes. Physically, I think our team is still in pretty good shape.”

The Bruins got a much-needed 2-1 win in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series when Marc Savard scored at the 9:25 mark of the first overtime Sunday night at TD Banknorth Garden.

“If you’re 30, you feel like you’re 60 the next day,” Savard said Monday. “You just have to get your rest. We’re doing the right things around here, getting lots of fluids and be as ready as can be for the next one.” The Boston victory still leaves the Bruins trailing the Canadiens two games to one in the best-of-seven series, with Game 4 slated for Tuesday night (7 p.m. EDT) in Boston.

“A little bit tired, a little fatigued, can’t lie about that,” Boston center Glen Metropolit said. “But it’s playoff hockey and you’ve got to leave it out there on the ice, we know that. You do whatever you have to, to win. It’s come down to that.”

Thanks to a 19-year-old already being compared to Boston hockey greats of the past, the Bruins may be the ones closer to a second wind.

“To compare him to Cam Neely and Terry O’Reilly is probably putting too much pressure on a young guy,” Bruins goalie Tim Thomas said of Milan Lucic. “But as far as being the classic Bruin protege, he’s perfect. He didn’t have to come in here and change anything about himself, it’s just him.”

Lucic scored the first goal of the game Sunday night, giving Boston its first lead against Montreal all season. He led the team in shots (4) and tied Vladimir Sobotka by dishing out six hits. “He’s given us a lot more than we even anticipated,” Julien said. “He made this team at the beginning of the year because we saw some potential but he was a guy that seemed, even at 19 years old, to be physically strong enough to handle this level.”

His physical play seemed to inspire the Bruins, who have held the league’s best regular- season power play unit to one goal in 18 chances, the best penalty kill so far in the playoffs.

Montreal, meanwhile, spent Monday also re-grouping but also thinking about how close they came to putting Boston down three games to none.

“We had the opportunity to put them in a big hole, but they were able to capitalize,” Montreal defenseman Michael Komisarek said.

“The game shouldn’t have gone to overtime,” added Montreal forward Steve Begin. “We had our chances, but we aren’t working, we aren’t talking on the ice and that’s why we were in trouble.”

Thomas had his best performance of the series in Game 3, stopping 27 of 28 shots, including all six in overtime.

“We had lots of point-blank chances, but they kept hitting him (Thomas),” Montreal center Bryan Smolinski said. “Fun game, but unfortunately we came out on the bad end.”

Thomas’ work in net helped the Bruins snap a 13-game losing streak to their arch-rivals, dating back to the 2006-07 season.

“I’d like to think we can carry over with the momentum,” Thomas said. “It was a big win but (Tuesday) the work starts all over again. It’s a clean slate every game.”