Bruins shock Panthers with three third-period goals for 3-2 win

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Mar 11, 2025

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — After the Florida Panthers’ morning skate at TD Garden on Tuesday, coach Paul Maurice was asked what he expected from the Bruins after their roster was turned over at the trade deadline.

The ever-thoughtful Maurice mulled it over in his mind and asked rhetorically, “When is the last time the pressure was off the Bruins?”

The implication was that the the B’s would be a dangerous foe. Maurice wasn’t wrong. The B’s stunned the defending champs with three goals in the third period for a 3-2 win in the most dramatic game of the season.

After the Bruins wiped out a 2-0 deficit in the third, Pavel Zacha gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead with 3:17 left in the third off a brilliant David Pastrnak backhand pass.

After a dust-up that sent both Jakub Lauko and Anton Lundell off for roughing, Florida pulled Sergei Bobrovsky for the extra skater.

Sam Reinhart jammed home the puck with 1:31 left in regulation but after a review it was ruled the whistle had blown.

With three seconds left, after the puck deflected out of play, Nikita Zadorov pummeled Sam Bennett in front of the net to a roaring crowd.

It was a wild ending to a game that was slow to boil.

Less than a year, these two teams played high intensity hockey every time they met. There was real edge to the games.

But after the B’s signaled they were waving the white flag on the season with their fire sale at he trade deadline, the first period on Tuesday was virtually buzz-less.

The B’s actually started OK. Morgan Geekie came a few inches away from putting them up by a goal when he clanged the post to Sergei Bobrovsky’s left. But the B’s understandably given all the new personnel, had some issues getting out of their zone at times with some simple D-to-D passes not connecting.

But while the Panthers held a 10-6 shot advantage, the defending Stanley Cup champions did not have a ton of scoring chances.

That didn’t stop them from taking an early lead at 4:27. Bennett won a faceoff in the left dot back to Dmitry Kulikov at the blue line and simply beat Jeremy Swayman with a long-distance shot past the glove. Swayman reacted slowly, suggesting he was a victim of a flash screen.

The Panthers gave the B’s a chance to get back even when they took consecutive penalties. But in four minutes of 5-on-4 time, Florida kept the B’s on the outside, if not in their own end trying to prevent a short-handed goal.

Florida got its first power play when Pastrnak was guilty of an offensive zone hooking penalty at 12:02 and, if ever there was a chance for the Panthers to put the hammer down, this was it. But the B’s killers did the job and they got the game into the third period down just a goal.

The B’s held a 7-6 shot advantage in the second.

Though they held their own through the first 40 minutes, they finally shot themselves in the foot.

Patrick Brown took a kneeing penalty on Kulikov, which was a questionable call. What wasn’t in doubt was the roughing penalty on Reinhart by Zadorov as the Bruin defenseman fell on the Florida wing and then gave him an extra shot when he was on top of him.

That gave Florida a 56-second 5-on-3 and with four seconds left on it, Seth Jones dished to Mackie Samoskevich for an open one-timer and a 2-0 lead at 4:49.

But the B’s got one back at 8:56 on the power play after Pastrnak drew a tripping call on Jones. On the PP, Elias Lindholm made a nice one-handed play to shovel the puck to Casey Mittelstadt in the corner. Mittelstadt found Pastrnak in front of the net and he roofed it over Bobrovsky.

When play resumed, Bobrovsky immediately shot the puck over the glass to give the B’s another PP, but they could not cash in.

But they got the equalizer with 6;09 left in the third period. Mason Lohrei pounced on a Florida turnover and beat Bobrovsky with a hard wrister from the slot.