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Own goal dooms Panthers in 4-3 overtime loss to Bruins

Jan 11, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) gets scored on by Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (not pictured) during overtime at Amerant Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Florida Panthers rallied to force overtime, but fell 4-3 to the Boston Bruins when Sam Reinhart deflected David Pastrnak’s pass past Sergei Bobrvosky with two seconds remaining in the extra session.

Florida dominated this one, but a strong performance from Jeremy Swayman, who finished with 40 saves, and lack of puck luck allowed the Bruins to end their six-game losing streak on Amerant Bank Arena ice when Pastrnak was credited with his second of the afternoon.

The Cats trailed three times in game before Reinhart got the puck to go with three seconds to left in regulation to earn the Panthers a point.

Boston capitalized on an early holding call against Lundell with Brad Marchand and Pastrnak opening up the ice to allow Mason Lohrei to take a shot from the left point. The shot struck Niko Mikkola and ended up on Morgan Geekie’s stick and he roofed it on the backhand to open the scoring at the 6:02 mark.

Evan Rodrigues potted the rebound of Uvis Balkinskis’ follow-up shot, after the defenseman originally hit the post, from in close with Lohrei in the sin bin to tie the score at 15:29. Anton Lundell drew the second helper on Rodrigues’ first goal in 16 games. Sweet relief for eRod.

The Bruins regained the lead with 4:49 to go in the second when Geekie took a feed from Trent Frederic and then whipped a perfect back door pass to Pastrnak, who got away from Dmitry Kulikov and smacked it home.

Reinhart would even it up 43 seconds into the third, finishing off a centering pass from Aleksander Barkov after the captain worked a nifty give-and-go with Gustav Forsling after entering the Boston zone.

After Justin Brazeau had his shot blocked by Nate Schmidt and Charlie McAvoy was denied by Bobrovsky, Oliver Wahlstrom would pick up the loose puck and slide it under the goalie to give the Bruins their third lead of the game 1:23 later. Ugh!

With time running out and Bobrovsky on the bench, Reinhart would strike for a second time to send the game to overtime. After Sam Bennett deflected Matthew Tkachuk’s pass, Reinhart took two cracks at it and the second soared in air and came down in the top corner with 1.8 seconds on the clock.

Unfortunately, Bennett would don the goat horns in overtime, taking an undisciplined high-sticking penalty at 3:18.

The Panthers almost escaped to the shootout, but Reinhart got a blade on Pastrnak’s pass intended for Elias Lindholm, who was open off to the side of the net, sending the puck by a helpless Bobrovsky to give the Bruins the extra point.

While the national audience watching on ABC was treated to an exciting back-and-forth game, the Panthers left a big point on the table, as they were clearly the better team throughout, on day that saw the division-leading Maple Leafs lose 3-0 to Vancouver. They outshot the Bruins 43-18 and led 23-6 in high-danger shot attempts, but couldn’t come up with one more goal and some bad bounces, coupled with some shabby defending in front, conspired to do them in. There was a lot to like in this one, however, the result stings a bit.

Tea & Honey

  • First Star David Pastrnak and Second Star Sam Reinhart put on quite the show. Each sniper scored twice and Pastrnak collected the secondary assist on Morgan Geekie’s game-opening goal. His overtime goal was the latest in franchise history.
  • The two-goal outburst gave Reinhart, who registered a game-high 11 shots, three markers in his last two outings. His game-tying goal was his 25th of the season, which has him tied with three other players for the second-most in the NHL behind Leon Draisaitl.
  • Former New York Islanders forward Oliver Wahlstrom’s goal was his first as member of the Bruins and came in is his tenth game with his new club. Wahlstrom was claimed off waivers on December 14.
  • Evan Rodrigues’ eighth of the season was his first goal since he opened the scoring in a wild 7-5 win over Philadelphia back on December 5.
  • In addition to his assist, Aleksander Barkov went plus-two, won 16 face-offs and was credited with three shots and two hits.

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Talking Points