Boston Bruins 1, Florida Panthers 1 FINAL OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -- Despite having its winless streak extended to six games, the Florida Panthers saw some positives in a tie.

"We played hard and we played pretty ... smart," Florida coach Rick Dudley said. "From my perspective, you can see it getting better, a lot better."

Valeri Bure scored on a nice individual effort in the first period for Florida, which tied the Boston Bruins 1-1 on Wednesday night. The Panthers are 0-3-3 in their last six.

Florida almost had a victory, but Ted Donato scored a short-handed goal with 9:08 left in the third period for the Bruins, who have won only one of their last nine games (1-3-4-1). Boston, which is 8-2-2-3 on the road, has tied its last three games.

"We've got to get better as a team," Bruins center Brian Rolston said. "I'm sure the papers aren't going say: unbeaten in three."

The teams also tied 1-1 on Oct. 11 in their only other meeting this season.

Florida dominated the overtime period, outshooting Boston 7-0. Both Olli Jokinen and Byron Ritchie had chances from close range, but were checked before getting shots off.

"It was pretty easy through the first two to 21/2 periods, but after we scored they started opening up," said Boston goalie Andrew Raycroft, who finished with 30 saves.

"They got a lot of shots in overtime, they got some good chances, but the guys did a good job of coming back and breaking them up," Raycroft said.

Roberto Luongo made 29 saves for Florida.

"Obviously, they've got a pretty good goalie down at the other end," Raycroft said. "He was a big reason it was 1-1 the last time. Tonight, they got the first goal and then they sat five guys in front of the net until we scored. They dictated the 1-1 tie tonight, for sure."

Boston was limited to 15 shots in the first two periods before doubling their output in their third.

"I told our guys, we've got to shoot the puck," Boston coach Mike Sullivan said. "We were looking for the perfect play, and sometimes it's not there. I told them we've got to get some ugly goals."

Donato's goal was far from ugly. Playing his third game since being recalled from the minors, Donato scored his first goal of the season when he took Sean O'Donnell's long pass at center ice and beat Luongo on a breakaway.

"It's not often you get a breakaway from the red line," Donato said. "It's nice to contribute. He s a big kid. You're certainly lucky to score on him when you get a breakaway."

Boston entered as the only team without a short-handed goal.

"Our penalty killing hasn't been as good as the players on it should make it," Donato said. "As a fourth-line guy, you try to find a niche to have an impact on the game. If it's penalty killing, I'll accept that."

Bure scored at 4:39 of the first period when he took a pass from Niklas Hagman behind the Boston net, skated in front, deked past Rolston, brought the puck back in front of the net and beat Raycroft to the far side while falling.

"That's the kind of goal that Val does, he makes a nice quick move on the net and sometimes he makes moves so fast that it's just physics that he has to fall down," Hagman said. "He's very good even when he falls down. He still gets the shot.