Recap: Two late goals lift Bruins to 4-3 win over Florida

W.

Late-game chaos continues to be a thing for the 2023-2024 Boston Bruins — but on Tuesday night, it was a good kind of chaos.

The Bruins scored twice in the last five minutes of regulation, then shut the door with the Florida net empty to skate out of Sunrise with a 4-3 win.

The win was the B’s third of the regular season against the Panthers and pushed them to sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division.

Things didn’t exactly get off to a flying start for the Bruins, as Evan Rodrigues scored less than 30 seconds into the game to make it 1-0 Panthers.

Matthew Tkachuk not-so-subtly stuck his skate out at Parker Wotherspoon about 30 seconds later. Wotherspoon took exception and earned himself a brief respite in the penalty box in the process.

It took a bit for the B’s to get going, as they registered just a single shot on goal over the first five or so minutes of the game.

However, they came into the game more as the first period continued, then Charlie McAvoy scored one of the more satisfying pure muscle goals in recent memory to make it a 1-1 game late in the first.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the Bruins failed to keep momentum in their favor against the Panthers, allowing a goal immediately after scoring one. Sam Reinhart got his 51st of the season to make it 2-1 Panthers just 73 seconds after McAvoy’s goal.

(You’ll notice Jeremy Swayman gesturing for a kick, but replays showed Reinhart angled the puck in with his skate, which is permitted by the rules.)

Things started heating up in the second period, with Hampus Lindholm and Sam Bennett getting together.

That was followed by Brad Marchand and Niko Mikkola exchanging pleasantries as well.

David Pastrnak would make it a 2-2 game with the lone goal of the second period 15 minutes in, a few minutes after Marchand’s tangle.

After a decent spell of play to begin the third period, the Bruins fell behind again when Carter Verhaeghe beat Swayman with a wrist shot through traffic to make it 3-2 Panthers.

Rodrigues took a late delay of game penalty for Florida, then Trent Frederic took advantage of a fortunate bounce and wired the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky to make it a 3-3 game with 4:22 left in the third.

A skate deflection taketh away, a skate deflection giveth. Pastrnak’s toss (with purpose) towards the net deflected in off of Pavel Zacha’s skate to make it 4-3 Bruins with 2:21 to go.

There was plenty of stress in the final two minutes of the game, with Florida pulling the goalie and applying plenty of pressure.

This time, however, the B’s held firm — and skated out of Whatever The Arena Is Called Now with a 4-3 win.

Game notes

• Whew. That final two minutes was something, eh? Scrambly, chaotic, terrifying — but effective! Lindholm had a big block on Tkachuk, Swayman made a couple of saves, Pastrnak was a pest. It was a great team effort.
• Along with making 18 saves and earning the win, Swayman had another milestone: he was credited with an assist on Frederic’s goal, his first career point.
• While it was far from a perfect game, you have to be pretty happy with the Bruins’ effort overall, especially following the disappointing game in Philly and the lackluster practice on Monday. They were able to hang with Florida physically, didn’t take stupid penalties, and capitalized on their chances. They bounced back from a deflating Verhaeghe goal and took the game to Florida for the last ten minutes of the third.
• Pastrnak wasn’t credited with any hits tonight, but for a guy who allegedly is an offense-only player and liability elsewhere, he was involved all over the place. He flattened Tkachuk prior to McAvoy’s goal, set up a John Beecher breakaway with an outrageous skyscraping pass, and obviously assisted on the game-winner. It was one of his better all-around efforts in recent memory.
• Speaking of Pastrnak, he recorded points 100 and 101 tonight, making him the first Bruin to record back-to-back 100-point seasons since Adam Oates in 1994. Just remember who told you first (if any of you are still here and remember that era of Chowder, I salute you).
• If you want to add two more “boy, they were everywhere tonight” guys to the list, McAvoy and Marchand had similar nights. That McAvoy goal ruled.
• I’m not sure how many of you were watching the NESN feed tonight, but it had some serious issues (at least on Xfinity in the Boston area). Everyone’s entitled to an off night, but it was like watching a hockey game broadcast on Atari for a few stretches.
• Jack Edwards noted on an intelligible portion of the aforementioned NESN broadcast that the Panthers score nearly 27% of their goals on the power play, the highest percentage in the league. The Bruins won that battle tonight, killing all three Florida power plays while going 1-for-4 on their own opportunities.
• Maybe we can petition some of the smart people to start tracking this stat, but Tkachuk must lead the league in PalmsUpLookAtTheRefForAPenalty/60.

The Bruins are right back at it in Tampa on Wednesday night, with a 7:30 PM puck drop.

Make sure you hydrate and we’ll see you tomorrow!