Andrew Peeke thought he had him.

On Saturday night, Bruins coach Marco Sturm surprised everyone in the Garden by tapping the stay-at-home defenseman’s shoulder in the potential game-winning situation in the shootout against the Vancouver Canucks.

Not only had Peeke scored the tying goal late in the third period to get the game to overtime and give the B’s a point, but Sturm had seen the defenseman score on a shootout goal earlier in the week in practice and hoped he would pull it off.

But his first ever shootout attempt in his pro career, Peeke went with a different move and Kevin Lankinen stopped it on a save that – in Peeke’s eyes – with the help of a little luck. In the fourth round, Peeke said the goalie bit on blocker side move but the Bruins’ shot went glove side. It just happened to hit the glove and stay out. The Canucks would go on to win it in the seventh round.

While Peeke had never attempted one in a game, he said he did go in with a certain strategy and didn’t just wing it.

“I saw his post-game comment and it was about a move I made in practice a couple of days ago and I scored on it,” said Peeke. “Obviously, to do in practice and score on the goalies, it’s fun to rub it in their face. But I usually come down the same way on the right side and cut middle and I kind of base it off where the goalie is positioned – shoot it, pull it backhand, pull it forehand. I base my read off of their position. I thought that I was coming in, he was favoring the blocker side and that’s why I went glove and it just nicked a piece of it.”

Peeke admitted standing at center ice with the game on the line was both “nerve-wracking, but exciting.

“In my mind, I’m thinking if I score, this building is going to blow up. I know I might never have many opportunities like that again so I was fired up,” he said.

At least his earlier goal had gotten the B’s a point in the oh-so-tight Eastern Conference standings. It also gave him his third goal of the season, which going into Sunday’s game against Ottawa led the B’s defensemen in goal scoring.

That stat is a little bit of a statistical oddity. His first goal was an empty netter and the second came in the final seconds of a blowout loss in Minnesota. His more meaningful goal on Saturday hit the post, bounced off Lankinen and in.

While Peeke knows what his strengths are, he takes pride in trying to improve his offensive game.

“It’s something I’ve worked on a lot over the past couple of summers. Obviously, for me I’m more of a defensive defenseman. That’s what I take the most pride in, winning battles, net-front, exiting the zone. But adding offense is something anyone would want to do and it’s something I worked hard on,” said Peeke, who also has five assists. “The biggest thing for me is getting shots through. Some guys are more prolific on the blue line. Cale Makar, for example, is going to walk the blue line for days. For me, it’s focusing on getting my shots through, getting a quick release and finding where there’s a good net-front presence. (Saturday) night, I saw that we had a couple of guys right in that lane and if I could just put it there, something might happen. And it did.”

Loose pucks

After being scratched for Saturday’s game against Vancouver, Alex Steeves was back in the lineup on Sunday and Jeffrey Viel came out.

“(Steeves) did a tremendous job in the time that he was playing. He got a little tired playing. He’s not used to this at this level, so I think (Saturday) hopefully it recharged the battery a little bit. That was the goal with him,” said Sturm. … The defense corps remained the same. Vladislav Kolyachonok is still waiting for his first chance to play since being acquired via waivers from Dallas.

“We’re not waiting for an injury. We’d like to see him at one point. But the timing has to be right … we’ll see next game,” said Sturm. … Victor Soderstrom, meanwhile, has played a strong game on the third pair. He made a good keep-in prior to Tanner Jeannot’s goal on Saturday.

“As coaches, we look at a lot of video and if you don’t talk a lot about a player, that’s a good thing. He’s one of them. He’s been a really good, fast puck mover. He’s got a really good pass. He stays out of trouble. He’s been good,” said Sturm.