Can struggling Boston Bruins turn season around and become a legitimate contender?

Is the Boston Bruins’ current hot streak a realistic view of what’s going to come the rest of the season, or just a mirage?

The Bruins’ victories this week over the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers are significant, because the Lightning have been fighting for first place in the Eastern Conference all season and the Rangers have been one of the hottest teams in the league. The two wins gave the Bruins a five-game winning streak and showed for the first time this season that this team may once again threaten to make a long run in the postseason.

The Bruins were one of the most disappointing teams in the league through the first three months of the season, and they found themselves on the outside of the playoff structure looking in when they went to Pittsburgh Jan. 7 to take on the Penguins.

That game appeared to be a sure loser for the Bruins. They had just dropped three straight extra-time games to Toronto, Ottawa and Carolina, and confidence was flagging. If the Bruins couldn’t beat the lowly Hurricanes – and they were lucky to send that game to a shootout – how could they beat the Penguins?

The Bruins were largely outplayed, but Tuukka Rask managed to keep them in the game and when Patrice Bergeron tipped a shoulder-high shot past Marc-Andre Fleury, the Bruins had the victory that may turn out to be the turning point in their season.

They followed that up with a solid 3-0 shutout of New Jersey that was fairly routine, but there was nothing routine in their 3-1 victory at Philadelphia last Saturday. While the rest of New England was getting ready for the Patriots’ tong war with the Baltimore Ravens, 18-year-old rookie David Pastrnak flashed his first-round talent by scoring two goals.

Pastrnak is speedy, instinctive and talented right wing, and general manager Peter Chiarelli has been looking for a strong right-handed shooter all season. Playing with countryman David Krejci, Pastrnak showed off his talent on a give-and-go play in which he dropped the puck back to Krejci, drifted to his left and took a return pass that he slammed into the net. He also had a power play goal earlier in the game.

Three days later, Pastrnak showed off his speed in scoring two more goals against Tampa Bay. He sped down the left side and outraced the Lightning defense and beat goalie Ben Bishop with a deft forehand move and then scored again later on a wraparound.

Suddenly, the Bruins had a phenom on their hands. Four goals in two games does not a Gretzky make, but the offensively challenged Bruins had life on the right wing. The Bruins have been in trouble finding productive right-handed shooters since the end of their 2013 Stanley Cup run that ended in six painful games at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Shortly after they watched the Blackhawks raise the Stanley Cup in Boston, Nathan Horton left the team through free agency and signed with Columbus. Columbus!

Horton had proven to be one of the team’s best clutch goal scorers in the 2011 Stanley Cup run and again in 2013. Chiarelli then compounded that defection by trading young superstar Tyler Seguin to Dallas for Loui Eriksson and Reilly Smith.

Eriksson was supposed to be a heady, hustling and talented player who would give the Bruins responsible play as well as decent goal scoring. Responsible? Yes. Goal scoring? No.

Eriksson suffered two concussions last season and finished with a pitiful 10 goals. Smith emerged with 20 goals last year, but Seguin (another right-handed shooter) scored 37 goals and fulfilled all the potential the Bruins believed he had when they made him the No. 2 pick in the 2010 draft. Seguin has continued to grow and is tied for the league lead in goals scored with 26.

While Eriksson is playing better this year, Pastrnak is the Bruins’ great, right hope. While he has many miles to go before he proves himself, but he has sent a bolt of electricity through the Bruins lockerroom.

It’s certainly not all on his shoulders. Zdeno Chara is playing like Big Zee once again. His one-punch knockdown of Tampa Bay’s Cedric Paquette may have made the highlights, but it is all-around play that is once again returning to form after a knee injury caused him to miss 19 games. Opposing forwards who skate in Chara’s zone often find themselves separated from the puck in an instant.

Krejci also missed 20 games with a lower-body injury (primarily a hip problem), and it took both Krejci and Chara several games to get back to top form after they returned. Now, both are playing with zeal and the Bruins have hope once again.

The Bruins are not out of the woods. Milan Lucic is showing signs of playing like the marauding freight train that Bruins fans have gotten used to, but he has more work to do. So does Rask, who played indifferently through much of November and December.

The heart and soul of the team remains Bergeron, and while he may not be the offensive factor that Jonathan Toews is for the Blackhawks or Anze Kopitar is for the Los Angeles Kings, he is so smart and determined and dominant in the face-off circle that he can carry the team when is needed most.

The Bruins have risen to seventh place in the Eastern Conference, but the real news is that they are just six points behind the first-place Lightning. Two more good weeks, and they can start to think about home ice advantage in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

That’s a lot better than being on the outside looking in, and it’s a realistic goal. Every team in the East has some kind of vulnerability, and the Bruins are fully capable of making yet another run in a season that appeared to be going down the drain less than 10 days ago.

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