Panthers shut out Bruins, get closer to wild card

SUNRISE, Fla. -- James Reimer made 46 saves to put the Florida Panthers closer to an Eastern Conference wild card with a 3-0 win against the Boston Bruins at BB&T Center on Thursday.
Florida (35-26-7) moved within three points of the New Jersey Devils for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with two games in hand. The Panthers, who are 9-1-1 in their past 11 games, are four points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the first wild card with three games in hand.

Reimer, who turned 30 on Thursday, was making his first start in six games and got his third shutout of the season.
WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Panthers highlights]
"If that's what happens on my birthday, I'll take it every day," Reimer said. "I just tried to stay focused. You're just trying to stick to what you know, what makes you successful and keep attacking every puck the same way. I've been feeling good in practice and it turned out all right tonight."
Nick Bjugstad had a goal and an assist, Aaron Ekblad and Vincent Trocheck scored, and Evgenii Dadonov had two assists for the Panthers.
Anton Khudobin made 25 saves for Boston (44-17-8), which remained four points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins, who lost for the second time in nine games, lead the Toronto Maple Leafs by five points for second place in the division.
"You get these nights where offensively it's not happening and then that's when you hope you keep it out of your net," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We've scored a lot of goals lately to win hockey games. It's probably going to come around the other way here pretty soon. We're going to need a night like they got, where we're keeping it out of our net. … You're not going to score six and eight, seven on a regular basis. Hopefully we turn around quick and start getting the goals against down to a manageable number."

Ekblad made it 1-0 at 6:25 of the first period when he stood at the side of the net and batted the puck in out of midair. Bjugstad made it 2-0 at 9:06 when he redirected Dadonov's pass.
"We haven't liked our first period in the last few games," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "We came out hard and ready to battle and our compete was good. We executed well in the first period."
Trocheck made it 3-0 at 14:07 of the second period with his 13th power-play goal of the season.
Reimer made 20 saves in the third period.
"It seemed like we had a lot of chances," Boston forward Rick Nash said. "It seemed like a couple trickled behind him. We didn't get any bounces tonight. It was one of those nights. The only way you're going to score is if you outwork them and we've got to make sure we do that next game."
The game was the first of four over the final 25 days of the regular season.
"Every win right now for us is important," Panthers center Aleksander Barkov said. "We want to get two points from every game. Of course, we're going to play three more times against them, so they will know how we play, we'll know how they play. It's going to be tough games, but these are the games we need to get two points."

Goal of the game

Bjugstad's goal at 9:06 of the first period.

Save of the game

Reimer's save on Matt Grzelcyk at 14:05 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Jonathan Huberdeau knocks the puck off the goal line at 9:13 of the second period.

They said it

"At the end of the night, it wasn't our night in the offensive end. As you look at it now, there were a lot of pucks bouncing around that we just couldn't corral. Give them credit, their goaltender credit, but sometimes it bounces your way, sometimes it doesn't. I think other nights, a few of those could have bounced our way."-- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy
"It's big. We're trying to catch some teams. We've got games in hand, which is nice, but those games are useless if you don't win them. We've just got to keep taking care of our own games and see where the chips fall come early April." -- Panthers goalile James Reimer

Need to know

Boston played without defenseman Zdeno Chara (upper body) and forward Jake DeBrusk (upper body), who were injured Tuesday. … Barkov had an assist to become the first Panthers player to reach 70 points in a season since Olli Jokinen in 2007-08. … Panthers defenseman Alexander Petrovic did not play because of a lower-body injury.

What's next

Bruins: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SUN, NESN, NHL.TV)
Panthers: Host the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday (2 p.m. ET; FS-F, SNW, NHL.TV)