BOSTON — It’s hard to know what to expect from the Bruins from night to night and sometimes even period to period.

After a rough first period, Boston found a spark in the second and used it as a springboard toward a 5-2 win on Tuesday at TD Garden.

The Bruins host the Sabres on Thursday.

Much of the first period played like a continuation of Monday’s browbeating in Ottawa. Bo Horvat made it 1-0, 62 seconds into the game with the Bruins’ defense out of position and Kyle Palmieri extended the edge to 2-0 before the game was even 5 minutes old.

The Islanders outshot the Bruins, 10-4.

Marco Sturm continued to make lineup moves with motivation in mind. Having already benched Mason Lohrei for the game, he dropped Morgan Geekie to the third line and gave Marat Khusnutdinov a chance to ride

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