Late Rally Falls Short

Panthers captain Olli Jokinen tries to set a screen in front of the net in the Cats game against the Boston Bruins. (Getty Images)

By Dave Joseph for floridapanthers.com

The winning streak is over.

After four consecutive victories and five wins in their previous six game, the Panthers hit a wall Thursday evening at BankAtlantic Center when, despite a late comeback, they lost 4-3 to the Bruins.

Sluggish from the opening shift, the Panthers couldn’t build off their shootout victory Wednesday against the Capitals and, for the third time this season, failed to climb above .500.

“They didn’t give us much,” said GM and coach Jacques Martin, referring to a Bruins team that was sitting Wednesday evening in South Florida while the Panthers played and flew home from Washington. “They’d been sitting here and hadn’t played since Monday.”

Losing 4-1 late in the third period, David Booth scored his seventh goal of the season with 2:19 remaining in the third period. With only 30 seconds remaining and with goalie Craig Anderson pulled for an extra skater, Olli Jokinen scored to make it 4-3.

But it was too little, too late. It also didn’t help the Panthers that Stephen Weiss didn’t play the third period due to illness or that Jozef Stumpel and Nathan Horton didn’t have a shot on goal through the first two periods.

Game Highlights
Starting Lineups
Panthers		Bruins
Weiss	C	Metropolit
Booth	LW	Sturm
Horton	RW	Kobasew
Bouwmmester	D	Ward
Allen	D	Chara
Anderson	G	Thomas
Post-Game Video
Jacques Martin  Olli Jokinen   Steve Montador   David Booth
Quote of the Game
“They worked hard and beat us to the puck,” - defenseman Bryan Allen
Stat of the Game
The Panthers scored twice in a 1:51 span in the third period, but the three goal deficit was a little too much to overcome.
3 Stars Presented by Szrio Jewelry
1. Zdeno Chara 2. Marc Savard 3. Tim Thomas

From the opening shift, when they allowed Boston three chances, the Panthers seemed to lose a lot of the little battles against the Bruins, who were kicking off a four-game road trip in a span of 10 games in 17 days.

Goalie Tim Thomas, who came into the game with a league-leading 1.99 goals against average, stopped 32 shots. Anderson, making his first start since Nov. 13, stopped 34 shots. Two of the Bruins’ goals came on the power play.

After starting the game slowly and getting outshot 17-6 in the first period, the Panthers left the ice after the opening 20 minutes down 1-0 on a power play goal by Zdeno Chara.

Martin, who was animated in speaking to his players between periods – “He told us we were better than that and to get pucks at the net,” Booth said – watched an improved Panther team hit the ice for the second period.

After Glen Metropolit knocked a rebound past Anderson just 39 seconds into the period to make it 2-0, the Panthers closed to within a goal at 2:49 when Steve Montador scored on a shot from the point set up beautifully on a fake by Ruslan Salei.

But with only 3:36 remaining in the second period, Chara scored again on the power play to make it 3-1. The Bruins fourth goal came after they won a battle on the boards for the puck and Phil Kessel wristed a sweet shot past Anderson.

“After the first period we battled harder,” Martin said. “We didn’t battle as hard as we can. We weren’t sharp in the first period.”

The Panthers, 12-13-1, will attempt to begin a new winning streak Saturday evening at BankAtlantic when they play host to the Capitals, who are winless in three meetings against the Panthers. The Panthers next four games will be at home.