The Bruins still have some fight left in them!
The Boston Bruins scored three goals in the third period to bounce back from a two-goal deficit and beat the Florida Panthers, 3-2, at the TD Garden on Tuesday night.
The Panthers took the lead early in the first period with a one-timer from Dmitry Kulikov, but that would be it from them until almost five minutes into the third period when Mackie Samoskevich extended the Panthers’ lead.
While the Bruins fell behind, they were competitive with the Panthers, slowing building their game as it progressed.
With 15 minutes remaining in the regulation, the Bruins broke through. David Pastrnak drew a penalty as he was tripped in the paint.
Pastrnak would score on that man-advantage, helping the Bruins begin to chip into the Panthers’ offensive pressure and shift the energy in the building.
“You’re just hoping that you can get one in the third period,” Interim head coach Joe Sacco said. “(The power play) It scores a big goal for us in the third and we break their pressure and now we’re back into the game.”
The tally was the first of three as the Bruins rallied to turn the game around. Mason Lohrei netted the equalizer while Pastrnak backhanded a feed to Pavel Zacha out front for the go-ahead late in the final minutes of the game.
Jeremy Swayman earned his second straight win with 26 saves.
“We believe in here and we’re going to show up every day and go to work and just try to get two points every night,” Lohrei said.
“This is far from over for us,” Zacha said.
Here are the highlights!
First period:
Sam Bennett won a face-off back to Dmitry Kulikov who blasted a one-timer from the point past Jeremy Swayman’s glove at 4:27 of the firs t period. 1-0 Panthers.
Second period:
No goals
Third period:
With four seconds left on their 5-on-3power play, Seth Jones set up Mackie Samoskevich inside the left-wing circle where he fired a one-timer past Swayman’s blocker at 4:49 of the third period. 2-0 Panthers.
Casey Mittelstadt fed a pass to David Pastrnak goes top-shelf from the top of the paint on the power play at 8:56 of the third period. 2-1 game.
Mason Lohrei controlled the puck in the slot and fired a wrist shot past Sergei Bobrovsky at 13:51 of the third period. 2-2 game.
David Pastrnak backhanded a feed to Pavel Zacha out front where he put a shot through Bobrovsky’s five-hole to give the Bruins the lead at 16:43 of the third period. Final score: 3-2 Bruins.
Game notes
- While there’s no crystal ball on what the remainder of the season holds, what’s encouraging if there’s still fight in this team. Postgame Nikita Zadorov talked about how there’s no quit right now. Pavel Zacha said “we need to keep winning…this is far from over for us,” and Mason Lohrei highlighted that they know the position they are in and are going to keep fighting.
- “We know where we’re at with the standing and we understand what just transpired with our group,” Sacco said postgame. “But we have new players here. It’s an opportunity for these guys, and however they want, whatever motivates them.”
- One of those guys making the most of the trade is Casey Mittelstadt. Tonight he had an assist. He’s registered two assists so far in his two games with the Bruins. After the game, he talked about playing with Pastrnak on the power play. “He makes the game pretty easy for the guys out there with him,” Mittelstadt said.
- Sacco postgame on Casey Mittelstadt and setting up the power-play goal: “He has good hands. He has good vision. He sees the ice well.”
- Zadorov dropped the gloves on Sam Bennett in the final seconds of the game, as the Bruins were fending off some quality chances from the Panthers looking to tie the game. Emotions were running high and Zadorov was one of the guys who helped give the team sone energy from his physicality.
- He was asked if it had anything to do with the two team’s history. “There’s always a game inside the game, so you try to win those,” Zadorov said. “Where we are in the standings, that’s not where we want to be. Hopefully we’re going to be higher up and we can match up against those guys in the playoffs. There’s definitely history in these two teams. I wasn’t being part of it…I’m just playing hard. I’m in front of the net and the guy cross checks me in the face… That was just a hockey moment over there.”
- Zadorov said since Friday, he’s felt everyone’s been showing up ready to work and playing for the Bruins’ crest and tonight was no different. “We’re going to keep pushing until the end,” Zadorov said. “We’re just trying to build the momentum we haven’t had all year, so I think. You get a couple of wins, you start feeling great, you feel confident inside the group. I think that’s a good thing, something brewing for sure.”
- The Bruins will hit the road for a game against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday at 7 p.m.