Florida Panthers can’t keep early lead, fall to Boston Bruins in overtime
Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart teamed up for a pair of early goals but the lead didn’t hold as the Florida Panthers lost 3-2 in overtime to the Boston Bruins on Monday at TD Garden to begin a three-game road trip.
Pavel Zacha score the game-winner for Boston 3:02 into the five-minute overtime period.
The Panthers fall to 4-3-1 on the season. The Bruins improve to 8-0-1.
Florida quickly built a 2-0 lead on the Bruins with a pair of goals from Barkov and Reinhart in the first period. Barkov’s wrist shot from the left circle on a 2-on-1 rush with Reinhart on the other end of the ice got past Linus Ullmark 6:13 into the game.
Nine minutes later, Reinhart scored his team-leading eighth goal with a wrist shot of his own from up close on a feed from Barkov, who played in his 671st career NHL game — tying Jonathan Huberdeau for the Panthers’ games played franchise record.
Entering Monday, Boston had given up just three total goals in the first period through its first eight games.
But Florida’s lead didn’t last.
Brad Marchand cut the Panthers’ lead to 2-1 early in the second when he took a feed from Jake DeBrust and his shot deflected off defenseman Gustav Forsling’s skate and past Sergei Bobrovsky; The Bruins then tied the game 7:20 into the third on a Charlie McAvoy wrist shot before winning in overtime.
Ullmark stopped 36 of 38 shots that came his way, including all 12 Panthers shots on the power play. Bobrovsky stopped 23 of 26 shots.
Sam Bennett injured in season debut
Panthers center Sam Bennett made his season debut on Monday ... only to leave midway through the game with an injury.
Bennett left the ice with 13:05 left in second period after Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm fell awkwardly on Bennett’s left leg — the same leg he injured toward the end of the preseason that kept him out for the first seven games.
Bennett did not return after that. He played 11 shifts and was on the ice for 7:54 before the injury and his presence was noticed in the early going.
Anton Lundell took Bennett’s spot on the second line between Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk after Bennett’s exit.
Bennett’s initial injury came on Oct. 5 in the Panthers’ second-to-last preseason game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He missed the first seven games while rehabbing and practiced with the team for the first time on Thursday.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson injured, too
Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who has played on Florida’s top defensive pairing with Forsling and the top power-play unit to start the season, left midway through the third period after McAvoy logged an illegal check to Ekman-Larsson’s head.
The penalty resulted in McAvoy being ejected from the game and gave the Panthers a five-minute power play with the game tied 2-2. Florida couldn’t capitalize on the extended man advantage, though, with Ullmark stopping all six shots on goal in that span.
Without Ekman-Larsson, Florida used five forwards — Barkov, Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Anton Lundell and Evan Rodrigues — as its top power-play unit. Carter Verhaeghe, Eetu Luostarinen, Nick Cousins, Kevin Stenlund and Forsling served as. the second power-play group.
Up next
The Panthers continue their three-game road trip on Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings. The trip wraps up Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
This story was originally published October 30, 2023 at 9:53 PM.
.JPG)