Bruins beat Panthers in overtime, close in on division title.
Boston completes a season sweep against Florida and moves five points ahead of the Panthers with four games left.
BOSTON — Jesper Boqvist scored 2:05 into overtime, Linus Ullmark stopped 28 shots, and the Boston Bruins beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Saturday in a matchup of the top two teams in the Atlantic Division.
Boston moved five points ahead of Florida. Both teams have four games left in the regular season – with Florida’s games all at home. The Bruins need four points to clinch the division title.
“It’s another big game, another playoff-type game against a team that’s going to be there, and those games aren’t hard to get up for,” said Boston center Charlie Coyle, who had a power-play goal in the second period. “It makes you feel good. It gives you confidence to win those ones, first off, but just to do it and play the way we want to play and know how to play.”
Charlie McAvoy also scored for the Bruins, who improved to 5-1 since Coach Jim Montgomery blasted the team during practice on March 25 for their lack of attention to details and not being prepared for the playoffs.
“I just think that was a wake-up call that our group needed that day,” Montgomery said. “I think why we’re 5-1 is because our team is growing and maturing, and we have great leaders.”
Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov scored for the Panthers, who lost for the fifth time in seven games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.
