The Florida Panthers erased three one-goal deficits before ultimately falling 4-3 in overtime to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Monday night.
Boston dominated the first period out-shooting the Cats by 15-8 margin and took the lead with 1:28 left in the frame when Tim Schaller got away from Aaron Ekblad to bury a centering feed from David Krejci, who was camped out behind the net.
Florida put forth a better effort in the second and they were rewarded at the 9:44 mark. Jaromir Jagr notched career goal number 754 by snapping the puck past Tuukka Rask to complete a crafty pair of passes from Mark Pysyk and Ekblad.
David Pastrnak gave the Bruins the lead back when he ripped a shot by Roberto Luongo at 16:37. Brad Marchand found Pastrnak wide open in the slot and fed him after collecting the rebound of a Patrice Bergeron miss.
The Panthers evened things up on an Aleksander Barkov goal 7:54 into the final frame. After Reilly Smith forced Bergeron into a turnover, the puck came to Barkov, who quickly ripped it off the cross bar and in for his fourth goal. Props on the play to Colton Sceviour, who wisely let the puck go to the 21-year-old Finn, who was in a better shooting position.
Boston took its third lead of the night 5:14 later when David Backes positioned himself in front and neatly deflected Ryan Spooner’s shot from above the right circle into the back of the net.
Defenseman Jason Demers earned the Cats a point when he was able to move down low and slip the rebound of Mike Matheson’s missed blast from point through a sprawling Rask. The goal came at 18:31, with Luongo heading off for an extra attacker.
It didn’t take long (83 seconds) for the Bruins to end the game in the extra period. After taking a short pass from Krejci, Pastrnak brilliantly skated through Matheson and pulled Luongo to the ice before finishing up high to give his team the win. Brandon Carlo picked up the secondary helper of Pastrnak’s 15th of the season.
The overtime loss, their first of the season, dropped the Panthers to 1-2-2 on this arduous six-game road trip that ends tonight in Philadelphia. All things considered, the Panthers did well to get a point in Boston, which has consistently been a house of horros for them. It was nice to see the team generate some goals, but the glaring defensive lapses continued, with three of the four goals allowed (maybe all four – if one is really going to nitpick) being far too easy for the Bruins to score.
Tea & Honey
- Roberto Luongo made his 944th career NHL appearance, moving past Curtis Joseph into fourth place all-time for most games played by a goaltender. Luongo stopped 32 shots, with 17 of those coming in a very busy first period.
- Tuukka Rask finished with 27 saves to raise his career record against Florida to an almost unbelievable 17-3-1. Boston is 15-2-1 against Florida over the last eighteen meeting between the two.
- After going twenty-one games without a goal, Aleksander Barkov has now bagged two is his last three games. Barkov led the Cats with four shots and posted a +2 rating.
- Paul Thompson made his Panthers debut and acquitted himself quite well. The 28-year-old, playing in just his fourth NHL game, logged 9:05 TOI and finished with a shot, two blocks and two hits.
- Keith Yandle left in the first period with a lower-body injury. Yandle is in the midst of a 577-game iron man streak that now looks over as head coach Tom Rowe stated the defenseman would be out for awhile.
- Despite finishing with a -2 rating, Vincent Trocheck was all over the stat sheet. Trocheck produced three shots on goal, two hits, two takeaways, and a block.
- Start your morning off with a Stanley Cup of Chowder. It does a body good./