Luongo makes 33 saves for Panthers in shutout against Bruins

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Roberto Luongo made 33 saves for the shutout in his return to the Florida Panthers net, a 5-0 win against the Boston Bruins at BB&T Center on Tuesday.

Luongo missed the previous five games because of a knee injury. The shutout was the 77th of his career, moving him past Ed Belfour and Tony Esposito for ninth on the NHL all-time list.
"It was great for Luongo] to be back in there," Florida coach Bob Boughner said. "His rebound control was amazing. There was a lot of second and third rebounding; he didn't leave a lot laying around in the crease. I'm happy for [Luongo]; he moved into ninth all time and he did it in nice fashion."
***[WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Panthers highlights]*
Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and two assists to extend his streak of multipoint games to six, and Mike Hoffman scored two goals for the Panthers (11-10-5), who are 3-1-2 on their eight-game homestand.
Evgenii Dadonov and Mike Matheson scored, and Aleksander Barkov had three assists.

Jaroslav Halak made 39 saves for the Bruins (14-9-4), who have lost three of four.
Huberdeau is one shy of the Panthers record for most consecutive multipoint games, set by Pavel Bure from March 11-23, 2001.
"Everything is working right now," Huberdeau said. "It's unbelievable. I want to try to keep it simple out there, and it's been working. I just want to keep doing that game after game."
Florida took control with four goals in the second period after outshooting Boston 13-7 in the first, when neither team scored.

"I didn't like the first at all, to be honest with you," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Our goaltender kept us in. Our goaltending has been very good all year, so we've been able to bounce back from it, but tonight it was man against boys at times, it looked like. Some of our younger players had their hands full."
Hoffman gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 4:21 when he poked in a loose puck in the crease. Huberdeau had an assist for his 296th NHL point, which moved him past Nathan Horton for fourth on Florida's all-time list.
Matheson made it 2-0 at 13:13 with an end-to-end rush before Huberdeau scored on a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead at 15:14.

"I gotta take credit for that," Luongo said of Matheson's goal. "I told him to start skating. I was yelling at him to skate with it. He took it end to end. It was pretty nice."
Hoffman made it 4-0 with 3.7 seconds left in the period with a power-play goal when he one-timed Barkov's pass in the right circle.
"I guess I need to be better, especially in the second period," Halak said. "Tonight, we just didn't execute in the second period, and that cost us the game. And we just have to regroup. That's the bottom line. We need to find a way to win."

Dadonov scored another power-play goal at 14:26 of the third period for the 5-0 final score.
The Panthers tied their season high with 44 shots on goal in their most lopsided victory, topping a 5-1 win against the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 11.
"I thought we had a great first period and we just wanted to keep building off of that and keep pushing," Luongo said. "Once we got that first one on a bit of a lucky break, the boys started to feel more comfortable and got a couple more.
"The boys did a great job. There weren't a lot of breakdowns, a lot of odd-man rushes, breakaways, stuff like that. It really helps my game when we play like that defensively, and it also translates in offense for our club. Take more of those hopefully."

They said it

"That's why I'm glad we don't play football. We don't have to wait another week to try to get this going in the right direction." -- Bruins forward David Backes
"It's cool. I didn't really know, and when I saw that, it's pretty cool. I've been here since the start of my career, and I want to stay here the whole time if I can. It's nice to be fourth, and I want to keep climbing." -- Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau on moving into fourth place on their all-time points list

Need to know

The Bruins have been shut out five times, matching 2014-15 for most in a season since they were shut out in seven games in 2011-12. ... Panthers forward Nick Bjugstad left the game at 12:19 of the third period after he was hit into the boards by Bruins defenseman Connor Clifton. No penalty was called. ... Florida has scored at least one power-play goal in 16 of its past 17 games.

What's next

Bruins: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, SUN, NESN, NHL.TV)
Panthers:Host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, ALT, NHL.TV)