Bruins hold on to beat Panthers, salvage road trip

SUNRISE, FL — The last time the Bruins had a 3-0 lead on the Panthers it ended in one of the worst defeats of the year.

That time, they actually went up 4-0 early in the third, only to be thwarted by a dramatic Panthers comeback. On Saturday in Sunrise, Florida made another bid in the final frame, but the Bruins held on to win 4-2 and snap their five-game losing streak.

The Bruins hadn’t earned points in their last four contests and opened their three-game road trip with consecutive one-goal losses in Washington and Tampa Bay where they played solid games but came up short.

Against the Panthers, it appeared history was destined to repeat itself late with the third period working essentially as a Florida flurry, but the Bruins held on for the two-goal victory, and salvaged two points on what could have been a disaster of a road trip.

Like in their last two games, the Bruins went ahead 1-0 in the first.

Jake DeBrusk broke through the Panthers defense around the top of the faceoff circles with 14:41 gone in the first. He had a similar chance in Tampa Bay two nights prior, but this time, he beat Sergei Bobrovsky to put the Bruins ahead.

This time, though, they extended their advantage, and that’s what earned them the win.

Against the Capitals the Bruins had what would have been the 2-0 goal wiped off the board from an offside review, and they never extended the lead in Tampa Bay.

But in Sunrise, David Krejci’s blast 3:14 into the second squeezed by Bobrovsky and sat on the goal line before it was knocked in to double the Bruins advantage.

In a contest that seemingly answered many of their problems from the past few games, the power play got involved as well. With 7:30 gone, Brad Marchand connected on a slap pass from the wall to David Pastrnak waiting at the doorstep and he tapped in his 27th goal of the year to go ahead 3-0.

Florida began a comeback bid with 17:14 to go in the third. With traffic in front of Jaroslav Halak, he let up a rebound which Mark Pysyk buried for his second tally of the year.

Pastrnak was sent on a breakaway with 13:31 left in the game and Aaron Ekblad barely got a stick on him, but Pastrnak was still awarded a penalty shot. He sent it right into Bobrovsky, so the score remained at 3-1.

Keith Yandle blasted a shot from the corner of the blue line with 10:47 left to make it a one-goal contest. He beat Halak glove-side, and it was 3-2.

Florida’s Aleksander Barkov went down late in the third after crashing legs-first into the boards and Charlie McAvoy was whistled for an interference penalty, so things went downhill for the Panthers.

Florida dominated the rest of the period, controlling possession time and getting shots on Halak, but Pastrnak iced it with 2:10 left with a long-distance empty net goal to seal the win.

The Bruins return home for a four-game homestand starting on Tuesday against the Kings.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/38CynFK