The Florida Panthers gagged up a late third period lead, surrendering a pair goals in a 2:01 span to lose 4-3 to the Boston Bruins, who reclaimed first place in the Atlantic Division, at Amerant Bank Arena.
Florida got off to a great start, applying pressure from the get-go and scoring when Evan Rodrigues tapped in a loose puck at after Jeremy Swayman blocked off Aleksander Barkov’s bid, but couldn’t contain it. Vladimir Tarasenko got the secondary assist on the goal which came at the 27-second mark.
As the period wore on the Bruins started to take command. They found the equalizer at 17:43 when Charlie McAvoy took a pass from Matt Grzelcyk and ripped a bullet by Sergei Bobrovsky after skating into the right circle. The second helper went to Pavel Zacha, who won a puck battle along the boards and dropped to Grzelcyk.
The Panthers struck back 1:13 later, regaining the lead on Sam Reinhart’s 51st of the season. After swooping in to collect a turnover off the boards, Dmitry Kulikov fed over to Eetu Luostarinen. After his first attempt to go back to the other side was denied, Luostarinen slipped a goalmouth pass through to Reinhart and he pushed it home.
Things would get a little rough in the second period and there wasn’t a whole lot happening offensively until McAvoy found an unmarked David Pastrnak, who easily roofed his 45th goal with 4:01 left in the frame.
Carter Verhaeghe would work his third period magic at 9:53 to put the Cats ahead for the third time. After a weak Charlie Coyle shot missed wide, Matthew Tkachuk gathered the puck and hit a onrushing Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Ekman-Larsson dished off to Verhaeghe as the two crossed the line and he used Brandon Carlo as a screen, firing the puck through the defenseman’s legs to beat Swayman.
A puck over the glass penalty on an unharried Rodrigues would prove costly when Trent Frederic scored at 15:38 to forge another tie. Swayman handed the puck off to Brad Marchand, who skated by Kevin Stenlund and a falling Luostarinen before setting up Frederic, off the skate off Ekman-Larsson, for a shot that zipped past Bobrovsky.
Boston would get the winner with 2:21 left clock. After Parker Wotherspoon was able to hold the line, Pastrnak sent a pass down low looking for Zacha at the side of the net. The puck smacked Zacha’s skate and went over the goal line with a helpless Bobrovsky watching in abject horror.
In their last two losses, the Panthers failed to hold on to a 3-2 late in the third. Puck luck was definitely against them as Rodrigues took a maddening delay of game penalty, Marchand’s pass to Frederic found him off Ekman-Larsson’s skate and Zacha’s skate scored the winning goal. All in the span of 3:32. Ugh!!!
Tea & Honey
- In addition to the wonky third period puck luck, the Panthers tasted defeat in large part due to losing the special teams battle. The Cats went 0 for 3 with the man-advantage before allowing Trent Frederic’s power-play goal.
- After going an almost inexplicable 14 games without a goal, Carter Verhaeghe has lit the lamp in three-straight tilts and is the third Panther to hit 70 points.
- Jeremy Swayman made 18 saves to pick up the win and also collected his first NHL point with the secondary assist on Frederic’s aforementioned game-tying marker.
- With a goal and an assist David Pastrnak is up to 101 points, making him the first Bruin to record back-to-back 100-point seasons since Adam Oates in 1994.
- Not the best outing for Sergei Bobrovsky, who finished with 17 saves on 21 shots. Bobrovsky has lost his last five starts.
- Aleksander Barkov returned to the lineup after missing three games and was pretty quiet after his early assist. Barkov played 21 minutes and was credited with just one hit. He won 9 of 17 faceoffs.
- The Cats remain winless (0-2-1) against the Bruins. The season series finale is April 6 in Boston, Florida’s last road game of the campaign.