SUNRISE,FL- The Boston Bruins started quickly on Monday night in the first period but then had to go to overtime to fight off the Florida Panthers 5-4 at the BB&T Center.
Boston got a goal from Patrice Bergeron just 34 seconds into the game to make it 1-0. 6:26 later David Pastrnak made it 2-0 and when Brett Conolly scored at 12:22 the Bruins had a commanding 3-0 lead. Alexsander Barkov scored his 20th of the year for Florida at 16:48 to make it 3-1 before Bergeron responded with his 28th just 37 seconds later to make it 4-1 Boston after one. Jaromir Jagr assisted on the Barkov goal to move over Art Howe and into the third place on the NHL scoring list with 1,851. The top 2 on that list are Mark Messier (1,887) and Wayne Gretzky (2,857).
Florida would replace starting goaltender Roberto Luongo after he struggled in the opening period. Luongo stopped 12 of 16 Boston shots in his 20 minutes of play. Al Montoya would replace him in net. Jiri Hudler and Jussi Jokinen scored 2:53 apart in the second period as the Panthers cut the Bruins lead down to just a goal at 4-3 after two periods.
Boston had several great chances in the third period to extend the lead back to a couple of goals but Montoya shut the door. Hudler scored his second goal of the night and 12th of the year with just 4:43 left to tie the game at 4-4 and send it to overtime.
Ryan Spooner and Lee Stempniak would head up ice on a two on one break late in overtime for the Bruins. Spooner sent the puck over to Stempniak to the left of Montoya. Stempniak skated to the top of the circles and wristed home the game winner with just a minute left in the extra session. It was Stempniaks first goal with the Bruins and 17th overall on the year. With the win, Coach Claude Julien becomes the leader in wins in Bruins history with 388.
Montoya ended up stopping 15 of 16 Bruins shots with the only one eluding him was the game winner in overtime by Stempniak. Florida (36-21-9) will host Ottawa Thursday night at 7 p.m.
Boston, now 37-23-7, got 47 saves from Tuuka Rask as the Bruins were outshot 51-32 in the game. Boston will play for first place in the Atlantic Division when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
