ON THE MEND

WILMINGTON - As long as the NHL season is, it can change dramatically - for better or for worse - in a matter of hours. The Bruins are starting to feel like this might be their (good) time. Milan Lucic brought his bulk back to the lineup last week after missing 14 games with a busted finger, and Boston responded by winning extra-time road games on consecutive nights in Atlanta and Buffalo. He scored the Bruins' only goal in regulation against the Sabres, and led the team with four hits. Now, as the four-game road stretch resumes tonight, the B's expect three-time scoring leader Marc Savard back to face St. Louis (8:05 p.m., NESN). "This is a game of rhythm and confidence and momentum and everything that goes with it," said coach Claude Julien, whose frustration level maxed out after Monday's 4-1 loss to the visiting New York Islanders. "Through the course of the season, you go through highs and lows, and right now those two wins certainly give us reason to feel better about ourselves." The coach feels so good about what his team has just done, he's almost reluctant to change his lineup. He will, of course, because "with a guy like (Savard) coming in, you've got to give your best point producer some guys who can help him. You're trying not to disrupt too much, yet you want to give him something." To start, Julien is giving Savard left wing Marco Sturm and, to the surprise of some, grinding right wing Byron Bitz. "I like it," said Savard, the team leader in goals (four) and points (seven) when he had to leave the lineup after seven games with a broken foot. "Me and Sturmie have a bit of jell from the beginning of the year, and I've been watching Bitzie ... He looks great out there. "I'm excited. I think we have a bit of everything on the line." Bitz, part of this year's most consistent line with center Steve Begin and left wing Shawn Thornton, has two goals and four points through 19 games. He had four goals and seven points in 35 games of fourth-line duty as a rookie last year. But "Bitzie, right now, is playing pretty good," Julien said. "He's strong along the boards, and he seems to be showing what we talked about last year, when I said he has better hands than people give him credit for." "If you watch (Bitz), as he gets more confident ... he has skill, too," Savard said. "He's got a bit of Glen Murray in him, kind of, if we can get him into those spots and shooting the puck." Bitz indicated he'll try to be a right-handed version of Lucic, whose big hits on the forecheck have created loose pucks for Savard to distribute in the past. "I'm not going to go out there and toe-drag at the blue line, try to beat guys 1-on-1," Bitz said. "That's not my game. Last game, I was effective just moving my feet, chipping the puck, then chasing it. That's simple; that's what I do best." Julien cautioned that the new combinations may not last long. Still, with Lucic and Savard back, the coach has more options than before, and the B's (10-8-4) have a chance to break the win-one, lose-one script that has so far marked the season. "We're still in the thick of things," Savard said. "We're close to something good; close to going on a run." Blues update: Saturday night's 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders squared their record at 8-8-4, and left them at 2-3-0 on a six-game homestand that ends tonight. Like the Bruins , St. Louis has struggled offensively, especially during an 0-2-3 stretch from Oct. 29-Nov. 8 in which they scored only 4 goals and were shut out twice. In Saturday's win, forwards Patrik Berglund (3-2-5) scored his first goal in 13 games, Paul Kariya (4-4-8) had an assist to snap an 11-game points drought, and B.J. Crombeen scored his first goal in the Blues' 20th game. Defenseman Erik Johnson, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, leads St. Louis in assists (12), points (14) and plus-minus (plus-7); LW David Perron leads a slow-starting group of forwards with 9 goals. Ex- Bruin Brad Boyes (4-7-11), who has scored 43 and 33 goals in two full seasons with the Blues, has scored only two goals in his last 12 games. Recent history: The teams split two games last year, with the hosts losing each time, but the series is best (or worst) remembered for the Blues' 5-4, shootout victory on Jan. 19 at TD Garden. Third-period goals by Michael Ryder (15:16), P.J. Axelsson (15:35) and Zdeno Chara (16:55) gave the Bruins a 4-2 lead, but the Blues answered with goals from Perron (18:40) and T.J Oshie, who forced overtime by swatting a rebound out of the air with eight-tenths of a second left in regulation. Bruins at St. Louis Blues 8:05 tonight NESN WBZ-FM (98.5)