GOLD STAR: Milan Lucic had a slow start to the game, but came through in the third period with a shift that helped lead to the game-tying goal for David Pastrnak. Then Lucic took matters into his own hands late in the third period when he crossed over the blue line with speed, attacked all five Florida defenders in the middle of the D-zone and then fired a laser through Roberto Luongo’s five hole for the game-winning goal with 1:09 left in the third period. It was the kind of play at the exact right time that has eluded Lucic for much of this season, but shows the kind of excitement and momentum he’s been able to build with the young speedsters. Lucic was a beast in the third period, and the B’s are hard to beat when he’s beastly.
BLACK EYE: The last couple of goals weren’t exactly stone wall efforts from Roberto Luongo, and he needs to find a way to stop a five hole goal from the high slot with 69 seconds remaining in a game they couldn’t lose in regulation. Instead he let up two third period goals on 10 shots for Boston, was beaten through the five hole for the game-winner with less than two minutes in the game and leaves the TD Garden disappointed once again in a feeling that shouldn’t be unfamiliar at all. Luongo needed to be one of Florida’s best players in this game if they hoped to keep their playoff hopes alive, and he definitely was not.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins were down 2-1 entering the third period, and they had not played well at all. The Bruins challenged each other and challenged themselves to play with more emotion and with the kind of edge that Florida had playing for their lives. Somehow they managed to tap into exactly what they needed, and find that energy to come out with the killer instinct in the third period to score two goals and take it from the Panthers. This had all the makings of another disappointing outcome for the Black and Gold, but they’ve showed a little more backbone down the stretch aided by big time scoring from the Lucic-Spooner-Pastrnak line.
HONORABLE MENTION: Ryan Spooner didn’t finish with a goal, but he did assist on both third period goals for the Bruins. That included a shot from the side boards that David Pastrnak somehow tipped up top of Luongo, and a solid shift in the third period toward the end of regulation that set up the game-winning goal for Milan Lucic. Spooner also won 6-of-9 face-offs, and that line did a solid job of battling every forward line while Claude Julien actively avoided having them out on the ice with the Jaromir Jagr/Jonathan Huberdeau/Aleksander Barkov line.
BY THE NUMBERS: 20 – the number of goals for Loui Eriksson this season with the Bruins after his first period score, which makes him the third B’s player to total 20 goals this season along with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “[It was] two teams really close to each other in the standings. Two teams fighting for their lives and for every point. They play hard. They have a good team, and it was a fight until the end.” –Zdeno Chara, on the B’s hard-fought 3-2 win over the Panthers that essentially snuffed out Florida’s playoff hopes.