The Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins met for a Saturday matinee in Sunrise, Florida.
In the third of four matchups this season, and without defenseman Aaron Ekblad, the Panthers put up a controlled effort, but Boston capitalized more on their opportunities as they came up on the winning end scoring with less than two seconds left in overtime to win it by a final of 4-3.
Florida spent the first minutes deep in the Bruins zone, but after a trip to the penalty box, it was not the Cats who scored first.
After a Mason Lohrei pass from the point to the blue paint got blocked, forward Morgan Geekie grabbed the loose puck and converted on a backhand shot past Sergei Bobrovsky at 6:02 of the first period.
The offensive zone time was in the Panthers favor, but penalty trouble came once again, this time it was killed, allowing zero shots on net.
Panthers drew a penalty right after the kill, and had very little going on it, but with a second left, defenseman Uvis Balinskis from the blue line threw the puck on net with traffic, and Evan Rodrigues picked up the rebound and got it past the blocker of Jeremy Swayman.
That was Rodrigues’ first goal since 12/5/24 in Philadelphia, breaking a 16-game drought.
Both teams went to the locker room after 20 minutes, tied at one. Florida held the advantage 14-6 in shots and started the second with a minute left on the power play.
Control at even strength continued for the Panthers in the second as they got eight consecutive shots, which carried over from the previous period.
Despite outshooting the Bruins by almost triple at the time, Boston retook the lead 16:11 into the second.
After failing to convert on the power play where Sam Reinhart broke his stick more than once, Boston got on the board once again.
Boston got the puck to the near corner on the forecheck, touched it back to the half wall, and Geekie then found David Pastrnak on the backdoor crashing the blue paint.
Receiving the pass, the one-touch found the back of the net to make it 2-1 with 3:49 left in the second frame.
Although the Panthers were trailing to start the third period, it did not take long to even the game.
Off the rush, Alesksander Barkov got a return feed on a give-and-go, found Sam Reinhart, and before Boston could get in on the back check, the tap by Reinhart tied the game at two.
Second straight game where Reinhart has scored a goal after going the previous six without one.
Bruins then responded just over a minute later, getting the puck in…