BOSTON — The good hockey that the Bruins are playing is coming only in spurts these days.
On Monday at the Garden, the continued their trend of starting slowly, amassed a four-goal lead over the Florida Panthers and then watched it nearly evaporate in a blink of an eye.
But if this is what passes for a slump, the B’s will surely take it.
The B’s improved to 25-4-2 with an uneven but entertaining (a little too entertaining) 7-3 victory over the Panthers with six different goalscorers, despite being outshot 39-26. They’ve yet to lose in regulation at the Garden this year (17-0-2).
Taking a tenuous 5-3 lead into the third period, the B’s and Linus Ullmark had to come up with a hairy 4-on-3 penalty kill before Patrice Bergeron (11) beat Spencer Knight with a wrist shot at 8:32, one of several that Knight would have had when he’s on his game.
Bergeron added his 12th of the season on a power play at 13:18 to finish off the Panthers.
As has been the case lately, the B’s meandered into the game. Befitting their status as a team just outside the Eastern Conference playoff structure, the Panthers had more jump in the first handful of shifts, even without their top forward Sasha Barkov.
The Panthers even thought they’d taken a 1-0 lead 28 seconds into the contest when Colin White had a partial break-in and put a backhander on net. Linus Ullmark made the save, but Hampus Lindholm crashed into him and took him over the goal line. While the Panthers raised their arms in tentative celebration, neither ref signaled a goal. It went to a brief review but the call on the ice was upheld.
It took the B’s a little while to get going, but they eventually did, thanks to a terrific rush by Connor Clifton. He picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone with speed and drove to the net on the right side before throwing the puck on goalie Spencer Knight with Taylor Hall in front. Knight made the initial stop but the fat rebound was laying out on the right side and Clifton never stopped skating, pouncing on the loose puck and roofing it for his third goal at 10:51.
Then Brandon Carlo, the last roster skater with a zero in his goal column, got into the fun. Patrice Bergeron broke the puck into the offensive zone and dished to Brad Marchand high on the left wing. Marchand spotted the trailer Carlo and hit him. From between the top of the circles, Carlo snapped a wrist shot that cleanly beat Knight to the glove side at 14:04.
This didn’t look like the same Spencer Knight who made 37 saves against the B’s on November 23 in Florida to hand them one of their four regulation losses. That was made even more clear at 16:07 when Charlie Coyle (9) beat him to the blocker side from from the right circle despite the fact Knight had a clear look at the shot.
The good times continued to roll early in the second period after Gustav Forsling shot the puck out the rink for a delay call and David Pastrnak scored on a rebound put-back on the power play, his 21st of the season at 1:38.
It looked like the romp was on, but if the B’s thought it was going to be an easy night, the Panthers disabused them of that notion with three goals in 5:20.
First, Sam Reinhart got the Panthers on the board at 3:02 when he jammed home a rebound.
At 5:02, Eric Staal scored on a one-timer that Ullmark got a piece of but cold not keep out of the net.
It was officially a game again at 8:21 when, out of net-front scrum, Carter Verhaege nudged puck under Ullmark’s pad and over the goal line. Derek Forbort quickly pulled it back but a quick review confirmed the goal.
Then when Pastrnak was called for an illegal check to the head of Marc Staal at 8:32, it appeared the B’s were dead in the water. But they came up with big kill and then extended the lead to two goals again at 11:50.
Lindholm led a rush out of the B’s zone to create an odd-man rush. . He played catch with David Krejci on the right wing, deflecting Krejci’s return pass toward the net. It hit the post, but bounced out to Krejci (10) and he calmly snapped it into the empty net when his teammates were already celebrating,believe Lindholm’s tip went in.
That gave the B’s a 5-3 lead, but with the Panthers spending plenty of time in the B’s zone, it didn’t feel all that safe of a lead going into the third period.
