Panthers winning streak ends at eight, lose in shootout to Bruins

BOSTON -- The Florida Panthers lost for the first time this season, 3-2 in the shootout to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday.

"We lost, but we played a really good game," Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said. "We battled hard, and we gave it our all. … We don't think about any streaks or anything. The most important thing is the whole game, how we play it and to play the right way. [We're going to] fix the little things and keep playing the right way."
The Panthers (8-0-1) won their first eight games, including 3-2 in overtime at the Detroit Red Wings on Friday, one day after coach Joel Quenneville resigned following an independent investigation of how the Chicago Blackhawks, his former team, handled allegations by then-player Kyle Beach of sexual assault by then-video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010.
Charlie McAvoy scored the tying goal in the third period, and Linus Ullmark made 33 saves for Boston (4-3-0), which was outscored 7-1 in losses to Florida and the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday and Thursday.
Charlie Coyle scored in the first period and had the deciding goal in the second round of the shootout.
"We needed that [win]," Coyle said. "Good on us to fight back and grab the two points. … We battled it out, and sometimes you win in that fashion like we did, gutting it out that way, which kind of helps even more to give your team confidence."

Barkov and Anthony Duclair scored, Aaron Ekblad had two assists, and Spencer Knight made 31 saves for the Panthers. Knight had won his first six regular-season decisions in the NHL dating to last season.
"I thought I could be better," Knight said. "I felt a little off and felt like I could have been better. I'm just going to continue to work. … I honestly think I want to work on every area of my game, really. … I want to keep improving and evolving. I think I'm still very far away from where I want to be, and where I could be."
Coyle scored from the left face-off dot with 42 seconds left in the first period to make it 1-0. Taylor Hall got his 600th NHL point with the first of his two assists in the game.
Duclair scored 47 seconds into the second period to tie the game 1-1. Carter Verhaeghe sent a cross-ice pass to Duclair on the rush, and he scored with a high shot glove side from below the right hash marks.

Barkov scored on the power play at 7:49 of the third period to give Florida a 2-1 lead. Jonathan Huberdeau found Barkov at the right face-off circle for a one-timer.
McAvoy scored on the power play at 13:35 to tie it 2-2, finishing a cross-ice pass from Brad Marchand.
"That's not really how we script it [on the power play]," McAvoy said. "We get the puck, we're trying to make plays, and that's where the skill takes over. I don't really know what I'm doing there, backdoor, but that's where I ended up. … That's where we just trust each other and let the skill take over. It was really nice to see that one go in."
Ullmark made the save against Huberdeau, Barkov and Owen Tippett in the shootout.
The Bruins went 1-for-3 on the power play, and the Panthers were 1-for-1.
NOTES: Hall is the second player from the 2010 NHL Draft to reach 600 points after Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin (640 in 752 games). Hall has 230 goals and 371 assists in 687 NHL games. … Marchand became the 10th player to reach 400 assists with the Bruins. He required the fifth-fewest games (811) to do so, behind Bobby Orr (437), Ray Bourque (544), Wayne Cashman (747) and David Krejci (774). ... It was Andrew Brunette's second game as Florida coach. ... Huberdeau played his 600th NHL game, joining Stephen Weiss (654) and Radek Dvorak (613) as the only players to reach the milestone with the Panthers. … With the assist on Barkov's goal, Huberdeau extended his point streak to six games (three goals, six assists), one shy of his NHL career high, which he has achieved three times, most recently from April 13-24.