Things were looking great for the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night in Boston, until they weren’t.
The Panthers, who had been playing like a defensive juggernaut lately, blew a 2-0 third period lead and were beaten by the Boston Bruins 3-2 at TD Garden.
The game’s opening goal came directly off a draw in the Bruins zone.
Sam Bennett won the faceoff against Elias Lindholm, drawing the puck back cleanly to the point, where Dmitry Kulikov leaned into a one-timer that beat Jeremy Swayman to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at the 4:27 mark.
That’s how the score would remain through two periods as both goaltenders, Swayman and Sergei Bobrovsky, continued to come up with save after save.
Florida also continued to dominate while down a man, killing off back-to-back penalties early in the middle frame.
Consecutive undisciplined penalties by Patrick Brown for kneeing Dmitry Kulikov and Nikita Zadorov for roughing Sam Reinhart led to an extended two-man advantage for Florida early in the third, and they would take advantage.
Seth Jones picked up the puck between the circles and slid a pass to Mackie Samoskevich, who one-timed a shot past the blocker of Swayman to double the Panthers lead 4:49 into the third period.
Boston finally got on the scoreboard, and they did it after a tripping call on Seth Jones.
Failed clearing attempts by Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola led to a long shift in the Panthers’ end, and David Pastrnak found himself all alone on the doorstep, and he made no mistake.
The power play goal snapped Florida’s consecutive penalty kill streak at 21 and cut the Cats lead to 2-1 with more than half the third period remaining.
Then things went from bad to worse for the Cats.
Goals by Mason Lohrei and Pavel Zacha less than three minutes apart gave Boston a sudden and stunning 3-2 lead with 3:17 to go.
A tough loss for Florida, to be sure, but they usually bounce back quickly.
On to Toronto.
QUICK THOUGHTS
Jones’ primary assist on Samoskevich’s goal was his first point since joining the Panthers.
Bennett has a goal and three assists over a three-game point streak, and he’s got eight points in Florida’s past seven games overall.
Kulikov has points in consecutive games for the fourth time this season.
Samoskevich has five goals and six points over his past nine games.
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