Calgary Flames' Johnny Gaudreau, left, celebrates his overtime goal with teammate TJ Brodie for the win against the Boston Bruins in NHL action in Calgary, Alta., Friday, Dec. 4, 2015.Larry MacDougal/The Canadian Press
Johnny Gaudreau has no problem taking his game to another level when his team needs a difference maker.
Gaudreau finished off his second career hat-trick at 3:20 of overtime Friday night to give the Calgary Flames a thrilling 5-4 victory over the Boston Bruins.
The 22-year-old took a pass from Dougie Hamilton in the high slot, stickhandled in and beat Tuukka Rask with a low shot that resulted in hats immediately raining down on the ice.
"Last year I was fortunate enough to get a hat trick but it was in a different arena. I was fortunate to get one tonight. It's always exciting seeing hats get thrown on the ice," said Gaudreau, who also had an assist for his first career four-point game.
It was quite a performance for Gaudreau, who has a strong Boston connection having played three years of hockey at Boston College. He has been especially hot on home ice where he's racked up 17 points (7 goals, 10 assists) during a nine-game point streak.
The Flames improve to 6-1 in overtime, with Gaudreau leading the NHL with five overtime points (3 goals, 2 assists).
"When (Gaudreau) shows up at the rink, his biggest asset is he wants to be the game changer, he wants to make the difference," said Flames coach Bob Hartley. "He has such high expectations of himself that it makes him very special."
Jiri Hudler forced the extra period for Calgary when he scored with 1.2 seconds remaining in regulation. Mark Giordano also scored as the Flames (10-14-2) extend its win streak on home ice to six games.
Brad Marchand, with a pair, Matt Beleskey with his first goal in 14 games and Zdeno Chara scored for Boston (13-8-3). The Bruins have points in their last seven games (5-0-2).
"It was extremely entertaining, we all enjoy being in games like that, but that's not the type of game we normally play in and we can't continue to play in games like that," said Marchand, who leads the Bruins with 12 goals.
The Bruins wrap up their three-game Western Canadian road trip in Vancouver on Saturday night.
It was a frantic final 66 seconds of the third period.
First, Marchand broke a 3-3 tie on a penalty shot with 1:06 left. He got the opportunity when his stick was slashed out of his hand by Hamilton while he raced away on a short-handed breakaway.
However, Calgary pulled its goalie and Hudler knocked in a loose puck to force overtime just before time expired.
"A tough one for me to play in," said Hamilton, who played three seasons with Boston before being traded in the summer. "It's not just another game. I tried to approach it the same way, but it doesn't help when you have a couple days to think about it, either."
After Marchand tied the game 2-2 1:36 into the second period, Gaudreau restored the lead 20 seconds later. That ended the night for Jonas Gustavsson, who left with eight saves on 11 shots. Making it three goals in the span of 46 seconds, Chara tied it up 3-3 at 2:22.
"We gave up a couple bad goals but I didn't think our game was bad at that point and we were able to get ourselves back into it but again, we kill ourselves with our own mistakes, it's as simple as that," said Bruins coach Claude Julien.
Rask made 23 saves in relief to fall to 8-7-3. Ramo had 34 stops to improve to 8-8-1.