RECAP: Bruins 4, Panthers 3

SUNRISE, Fla. – In a battle between the top teams in the Atlantic Division, the Florida Panthers let a late lead slip through their fingers in a 4-3 loss to the Boston Bruins at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday.

With the loss, the Panthers (46-21-5) now trail the Bruins (42-16-15) by two points for first place in the division, but also have one game in hand and hold the potential tiebreaker.

“I’m not going to complain about the game,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “It was a heck of a game. It was as good a game as we’ve been a part of this year in terms of speed and physicality. There were good plays, there were knuckled pucks on both sides, some good saves. Both teams fought hard not to give much up.”

Breaking the ice just 27 seconds after the puck dropped in the first period, Evan Rodrigues crashed the crease and poked a rebound past Jeremy Swayman to make it 1-0. Back in the lineup after missing three games with an injury, Aleksander Barkov had the primary assist on the play.

“The guys in the medical room, they got me ready for this game,” Barkov said of getting back into the action. “I really appreciate it. I felt pretty good physically. Thank you to all of them.”

Keeping that lead intact, Sergei Bobrovsky brought fans to their feet when he kicked out his left pad for a toe save on a partial breakaway from John Beecher near the 10-minute mark.

Briefly evening the score for the Bruins, Charlie McAvoy took a pass from Danton Heinen and buried a slap shot from the right circle to make it 1-1 at 17:43. But just 1:13 later, Sam Reinhart tapped in his 51^st goal of the season to put the Panthers back on top 2-1 at 18:56.

Setting up the goal, Eetu Luostarinen recorded the 100^th point of his NHL career.

“Nice little milestone there,” Luostarinen said. “Just gotta keep working hard.”

With enough bad blood to fill the lower bowl, a lot of pushing and shoving eventually turned into full-blown fisticuffs in the second period. At 5:11, Sam Bennett pummeled Hampus Lindholm with a flurry of punches. At 10:43, Niko Mikkola tackled down Brad Marchand.

"It was a good battle between these two teams," Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said. "Boston's a really good team. Any time we go there or they come here, there's always a couple fights, big hits, big goals. It's always a lot of fun. These are the kind of games that get you ready [for the playoffs] and gear you up."

Notching his 100^th point of the season, David Pastrnak tied things up again for Boston when he found some open ice in the slot and lifted a shot over Bobrovsky to make it 2-2 at 15:59.

Scoring yet another big goal against the Bruins – where have we seen that before? – Verhaeghe took a dish from Oliver Ekman-Larsson and beat Swayman with a laser from the left circle in transition to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead at 9:53.

“It was probably the most intense and physical game in [months],” Verhaeghe said. “It’s a lot of fun playing in these games. A playoff-like atmosphere out there. It was fast and intense.”

Earning a power play after a delay-of-game penalty, the Bruins got the game back to a deadlock when Trent Frederic – benefitting from a fortuitous bounce in the offensive zone – teed up a loose puck and blasted a shot past Bobrovsky to make it 3-3 at 15:38.

Just 2:01 later, Pavel Zacha scored from the doorstep to put Boston up 4-3.

“We definitely learned from this game,” Barkov said. “I think most of the game we played the right way. We didn’t cheat for anything. We tried to make the right plays all over the ice. They’re a good team. They’re going to have their momentum, and we had our momentum.”

THEY SAID IT

“It was just that tight a game that it’d be a bounce around the net that made the difference.” – Paul Maurice

“We were ready to play. We came out hard in the first. We had a good first period.” – Aleksander Barkov

“We just made little mistakes and they scored off those.” – Eetu Luostarinen

“We lost the game. It’s frustrating, but I think it was good to get into that type of game. It was intense. It was a hard-fought battle.” – Carter Verhaeghe

CATS STATS

- The Panthers and Bruins combined for 90 hits.

- Matthew Tkachuk led Florida with eight hits.

- Sam Bennett went 9-for-14 (64.3%) in the faceoff circle.

- Carter Verhaeghe fired off a team-high seven shots on goal.

- The Panthers led 20-13 in scoring chances at 5-on-5.

- Sergei Bobrovsky made four high-danger saves, per NaturalStatTrick.com.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Panthers will likely have a chance to punch their ticket to the playoffs when they return to the ice to host the New York Islanders at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.

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