The Florida Panthers fell further behind the Atlantic Division leaders, dropping a tight 3-1 decision to the Boston Bruins that ended a six-game winning streak at Amerant Bank Arena.
Florida had some prime scoring chances, but couldn’t claim the opening goal thanks to some fine goaltending from Linus Ullmark, who made 15 saves.
Instead, it was the Bruins who got on the board first at the 18:35 mark. After taking an outlet pass from Hampus Lindholm, Danton Heinen dropped the puck to Charlie Coyle and he burst into the Panthers zone before juking Brandon Montour and beating Sergei Bobrovsky on the backhand.
The Cats would even it up 10:33 into the second when Niko Mikkola fed from down lown to Nick Cousins at the right point. Cousins sent a shot towards the net that deflected off of defenseman Mason Lohrei’s shin pad before pinballing in off of Anton Lundell’s skate.
Boston would generate a quick response to retake the lead 41 seconds later. Patrick Brown sprung John Beecher and he broke in on Bobrovsky, but ripped his shot wide. He was able to throw the puck back into the slot where Jakub Lauko fanned on it. Beecher took control, pulled Bobrovsky out of position and then lost the handle a bit as he tried to finish. Unfortuntately for the Cats, the puck went in off a diving Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who was trying to help protect the net. No good deed goes unpunished, eh?
Ullmark would come up with a huge pad save on Kevin Stenlund before the Bruins added another at 14:19 when Jake DeBrusk converted his own rebound after combining with Matthew Poitras to outwork Dmitry Kulikov and Ekman-Larsson below the goal line. DeBrusk popped out in front with the puck and slung it off Bobrovsky’s chest before stuffing in the second chance.
The visitors limited the Panthers to just six shots in third period, the best chance being Montour’s late one-timer, to close it out and post its second win over the Panthers this season.
Florida will join the rest of the league in breaking for Thanksgiving before wrapping up the three-homestand against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday.
Tea & Honey
- The Panthers inability to score during the first period when they had 15 shots, including the first eight of the game, and two power-play chances loomed large in the loss. The Cats were only able to put 13 shots on Linus Ullmark the rest of the way.
- John Beecher’s first NHL game-winner was the third goal of his career. He also scored in Boston’s overtime loss to Tampa Bay on Monday. The rookie finished the tilt with three shots and a block.
- The fourth line of Jakub Lauko-Beecher-Patrick Brown was the only one that outshot Florida at 5-on-5 (5-1), and that was with zero offensive zone starts.
- Matthew Tkachuk registered a game-high seven shots on goal in 22:27 TOI, which was the most among all forwards. Marker number four remains elusive.
- Tough night for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who was one the ice for all three Bruins goals. Fellow veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov was on for two of them.
- For more on the Bruins extending its point streak to seven games, visit Runs On Hockey.