In a crucial Atlantic Division match on Saturday afternoon, the Boston Bruins defeated the visiting Florida Panthers 3-2 thanks to a game-winning breakaway goal by Jesper Boqvist at 2:05 of overtime.
Boqvist created the winning play all by himself, gaining the puck in a wall battle in the defensive zone and then breaking down the left side circle.
Boston (46-17-15), who have won four straight and now have a five-point lead atop the division rankings, also has goals from Charlie McAvoy and Charlie Coyle.
For the Bruins, Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in the goal.
With two goals and two assists from Gustav Forsling, Florida (48-24-6), which is just 2-4-1 in its previous seven games, was led by Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov.
Sergei Bobrovsky of Florida made twenty-six stops.
The Panthers led the game in shots made, 31–29. In all, the clubs had eight power-play opportunities before Boston scored the lone goal.
The visitors scored in just 37 seconds when Tkachuk raced down the slot and sent a shot upstairs on Ullmark after an odd carom off the end glass.
At 5:42, McAvoy responded to tie the game at 1-1 by stepping into a wrister between the circles after receiving a backhand feed from Danton Heinen along the left wing wall.
Midway through the second period, Bobrovsky produced a number of great stops to preserve the tie, including a cross-crease pad stop on Morgan Geekie, who successfully stopped a Brad Marchand pass in the right circle.
In the second, with 4:15 left, Boston scored the game’s first goal on its ninth total power play. Redirecting Marchand’s feed from the top of the left circle, Coyle drove down the slot.
The Boston advantage didn’t last more than two minutes, despite one of Ullmark’s best plays coming 3:55 into the third when he drove across the crease to rob Sam Bennett’s deflection.
At 5:24, Barkov gave Florida the equalizer by grabbing the rebound of a Sam Reinhart attempt that went wide of the other goal.
In the last minute of regulation, Marchand and Geekie both had opportunities to pot a loose puck amid a rush in the crease, sending the game into overtime.
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