But as Hunwick spotted the red light and raised his arms to celebrate, he heard an interrupted blare of the goal horn. He saw several Penguins rushing past him, far too fast, he thought, to be going off the ice for a line change. That’s when he saw referee Bill McCreary waving his arms to indicate no goal.

“You always wonder what’s going to happen next - whether we’re going to score another goal, they’re going to score, or what’s going to happen,’’ said Hunwick. “You’re just hoping that when they look at it on video, they make the right call.’’

More than a minute later, after a stoppage allowed McCreary to consult with video judge Kyle Messier, a review confirmed what seemed to be clear during live action: Hunwick had scored what would be the game-winning goal in the Bruins’ 3-0 victory over Pittsburgh before 17,565 at TD Garden last night.

“We get the privilege of having our video guy look at those replays,’’ said coach Claude Julien, referring to video analyst Brant Berglund. “We were told even before the whistle was blown that it was a goal, so there was no need to panic.’’

At the other end, Tim Thomas bricked up the Boston net. Thomas stopped 27 shots, including 13 in the second period, to record his first win since Oct. 24. And for the first time all season, the Bruins posted back-to-back wins (they beat Buffalo Saturday, 4-2). Over the last seven games (3-3-1), the Bruins have allowed only eight goals.

“The Stanley Cup champions may be banged up a little bit,’’ said Julien of the Penguins, who were without Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Maxime Talbot, Kris Letang, and Tyler Kennedy, then lost Brooks Orpik in the first period. “But at the same time, we also can’t forget that we played a pretty good Buffalo team that’s had some success also. If you want to be part of those elite teams, you’ve got to be able to compete with them. We did a good job tonight.’’

The Bruins dominated play in a scoreless first period, posting a 10-2 shot advantage. But after Hunwick scored his fourth goal of the season (helpers to Dennis Wideman and Steve Begin), the Penguins found some jump in their skates and began to apply heavy pressure on the Boston net.

Five minutes into the second period, after a behind-the-net giveaway by Andrew Ference, Pascal Dupuis had a close-range bid that Thomas stuffed. Less than three minutes later, after Hunwick and Mark Stuart dived into the bench to avoid a too-many-men call, Jordan Staal and Bill Guerin broke away on a two-on-one that the Bruins turned aside.

The Penguins continued to plug away in the third. But Thomas, a hard-luck loser in his three previous starts (four goals total allowed), stood tall to keep his net clear of pucks. Early in the third, Thomas fought through traffic to snatch a point shot by Alex Goligoski. After Guerin slipped loose in the slot, Thomas reached behind him to stop the veteran winger’s backhand bid.

So with the Penguins knocking hard on Thomas and the Boston defense, it was a perfect time early in the third period for Daniel Paille to score his first goal for his new team. Prior to Paille’s goal, the Penguins had an odd-man rush that saw Sidney Crosby provide middle drive and Matt Cooke take the puck wide left. Derek Morris, who missed the morning skate because he was feeling sick (he tested negative for the H1N1 virus), read the play and knew what he had to do.

“Crosby drove the net hard, so they usually try to go to him in the middle,’’ Morris said.

Morris, anticipating Cooke’s cross-crease pass to Crosby, hit the deck and smothered the dish. Mark Recchi fished the puck off the boards and hit a streaking Paille, who had rolled over the boards for Marco Sturm. Paille took Recchi’s pass in stride, broke in on Fleury, and snapped a forehand shot past the netminder at 3:34 to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead. Recchi recorded his 900th career NHL assist on Paille’s strike.

“Really excited,’’ Paille said of scoring his first goal as a Bruin. “The opportunity came for a breakaway. It was a great pass by Recchi. It was awesome.’’

The Penguins nearly halved the deficit when Goligoski’s dump-in rattled off the end boards - Thomas had left the crease, anticipating the puck to go behind the net - and bounced off the right post. Thomas dived for the puck and swept it aside before Mike Rupp could bang it home.

The Bruins got a good bounce of their own during Pittsburgh’s six-on-four power play when Patrice Bergeron’s long-distance clear skipped like a stone across a pond and found the back of the empty net at 19:56.

“It’s nice,’’ Bergeron said. “That was the goal tonight when we went into this game - to [win consecutive games] for the first time.

“We’re 17 games deep. It was time to have two good efforts in a row. We’ve got to carry it over.’’