Comments / New

Recap: Panthers keep focus in 4-1 win over Bruins

Posted on by Todd Little

The Florida Panthers hockey team stayed focused amidst a gathering storm surrounding head Joel Quenneville and beat the Boston Bruins 4-1 to remain undefeated.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots, including 14 of 15 in the opening period, when the Bruins seriously tilted the ice in their favor and limited the Cats to just five shots on goal.

Charlie Coyle got Boston’s lone goal 10:37 into the first period when his backhand pass from behind the net caromed off Owen Tippett and found it’s way through Bobrovsky. Wasn’t even a good pass, but hey, they all count.

Mason Marchment drew the outplayed Panthers even 3:36 later when he took a nifty little backhand pass from Sam Reinhart and ripped a wrister home from the right circle for his first of the season. Great piece of work by Reinhart to dig the puck free along the boards. The second assist on the goal went to Gustav Forsling.

The Cats turned the tables on the Bruins in the second period, fpleting Linus Ullmark with 14 shots. They took the lead at 2:06 when Reinhart cruised into the Boston zone and rifled a pass from down in front to Eetu Luostarinen, who directed it home from his knees. Forsling again collected the secondary helper on the goal, which was Luostarinen’s first of the season.

Anthony Duclair third period backbreaker wasn’t his first goal of the season, the Duke is now up to a team-leading five, but it was another beauty. Duclair took a pass along the boards from Aaron Ekblad and burst in on Ullmark, pulling him to the ice before tucking the puck in around the goalie’s skate. Aleksander Barkov drew the second assist on the goal.

Bobrovsky stopped all 14 shots in the final frame and Tippett put the icing on the cake with an empty net goal from Jonathan Huberdeau and Forsling with 26 ticks left on the clock to send the Panthers to 7-0. The Catshave won 13 straight regular season games dating back to last season.

The Panthers will hit the road with a Friday night date against the Detroit Red Wings before they face the Bruins in a quick rematch on Saturday.

Odds & Ends

  • Sergei Bobrovsky has won the first five starts of a season for the first time in his NHL career. Bobrovksy lowered his GAA to 1.79 and saw his save percentage tick up to .946.
  • Milestones: Aaron Ekblad suited up in his 500th career NHL game while Brandon Montour played in his 300th.
  • Led by former Cat Erik Haula (who went 11 of 13), Boston won two thirds of the game’s faceoffs.
  • Sam Reinhart has put up seven points (2G/5A) during what is now a five-game point streak.
  • Linus Ullmark finished with 23 saves and took his first loss as a member of the Bruins.
  • For more on the first of just three meetings between the Cats and Bears, have yourself a hearty helping of Stanley Cup of Chowder./

Video Recap (courtesy of NHL.com)

Talking Points