Bergeron was eager to draw

He was ready at drop of the puck

Marc Savard was up in arms with excitement when Phil Kessel scored to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead in the first period. (Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

Before last night's 4-1 win, a day after Claude Julien kept Patrice Bergeron out of the faceoff circle entirely, the center had a message for his coach: He was ready.

"It's his decision right now," Bergeron said. "I'd like to. I'm ready. If he needs me, I'll take some."

Late in last Saturday's shootout win over Montreal, Bergeron suffered a muscle pull that became aggravated whenever he leaned over to take a faceoff. Bergeron took only two faceoffs in Wednesday's 3-2 loss to Buffalo, and took zero in Friday's 7-2 rout of the Islanders.

In last night's first period, when Bergeron's line was on the ice, Julien sent out David Krejci for defensive-zone faceoffs. Once the Bruins gained control of the puck, Krejci returned to the bench and was replaced by Chuck Kobasew, Bergeron's regular right wing.

But as the game progressed, Bergeron returned to the draw, going 5 for 7 on the night.

"He told me," said Julien. "He said he was feeling good enough to take them. I said, 'Go ahead and take a few. If you see that it doesn't get better, just pull yourself out of there, because we've got another three days here.' He should be good for the next game. It was just a little cautionary thing. A little muscle pull. Every time he took draws, it got worse.

"Right now, I think he's at the stage where he's recovering from that."

Bergeron is the club's strongest man on the draw, winning 59.3 percent of his faceoffs. But he's also been doing the little things that Julien has become accustomed to seeing from his alternate captain. In the second period, Bergeron won the puck in the corner and fed Kobasew for Boston's third goal. Later in the second, during Detroit's third power play, Bergeron busted up a scoring chance when center Pavel Datsyuk spotted captain Nicklas Lidstrom sneaking backdoor. With a flick of his stick, Bergeron got a piece of Datsyuk's pass.

On Friday, Bergeron made a heads-up play that prevented a late-game Islanders rally.

Up in the third period, 5-2, penalty-killers Richard Park and Andy Hilbert broke loose for a two-on-one shorthanded rush, with Bergeron the lone Bruin back. Park, carrying the puck on the right wing, was looking to set up Hilbert in the slot. In an instant, Bergeron thought about how opposing defensemen would play him during an odd-man rush and tried to follow suit.

"Being a forward, going in on a two-on-one, I know I don't like when the D-man goes toward me, closes the space, then goes down if I'm the puck carrier," Bergeron said. "You start getting handcuffed a little bit. Your space is getting smaller and smaller."

So Bergeron played off Hilbert, drifted toward Park, and closed down the forward's space. When Park ran out of room and tried to dish to Hilbert, Bergeron hit the deck and smothered the puck with his body. For good measure, Manny Fernandez jumped on Bergeron and helped freeze the puck at 15:20 to snuff out New York's final threat.

"He couldn't have played it any better," Fernandez said. "I think Park was trying to take advantage of it because he knew it was a forward trying to back up. He probably didn't expect a nice slide like that.

"[Bergeron] just took all of his options away. [Park] tried to sneak it under him, but Patrice was really patient with that. He came up with a huge play at the right time."

Julien said he doesn't encourage his players to leave their skates and hit the ice to block passes in those situations. But Julien also said he doesn't discourage his guys from picking their spots if they read situations correctly, especially if it's an intelligent player like Bergeron.

"I think Patrice is probably one of our most complete players," Julien said. "He plays both ends of the ice very well. Defensively, he's reliable. Faceoffs, he's been great. Offensively, on that power play, he plays the ice well. To me, that's hockey sense. He's got great hockey sense and he uses it well."

Ward hobbled
The Bruins lost Aaron Ward to a leg injury in the first period. Ward was injured after throwing a check on forward Derek Meech along the boards. Ward pushed lightly off his left skate and limped to the dressing room with help from trainer Don DelNegro.

Ward skated only three shifts for 3:43 of ice time.

Julien said Ward will be evaluated today.

"I thought they handled it well," Julien said of his five-D squad. "I thought in the third period, our back end did a really good job of moving the puck, giving each other outlets, and making it easier for Manny."

Dennis Wideman took Ward's spot as Zdeno Chara's top-pair partner. Wideman led all players with 28:36 of ice time. Chara, who usually plays the left side, also took shifts on the right side when he was paired with Matt Hunwick.

"I was playing the same way," said Wideman. "Just maybe a little more. Aaron went down, so we all had to step up as a group. We all had to play a little more tonight. As a group, I thought the D corps and the goalie played really well."

Sturm still sidelined
Marco Sturm (concussion) missed his sixth straight game . . . Phil Kessel (goal) extended his scoring streak to nine games. Also stretching their streaks were Krejci (six games) and Kobasew (six).

Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com