Boston moved into first place in the Atlantic Division with the win over Florida

What started as a fun night for the Florida Panthers ended in frustration.

Florida jumped out to a quick lead against the Boston Bruins but couldn’t build a cushion, allowing the visitors to stay close before earning a comeback 4-3 victory at Amerant Bank Arena.

Panthers captain Sasha Barkov, who missed each of Florida’s past three games with an injury, provided an early spark on the game’s opening shift.

A play that started by the strong forecheck of Vladimir Tarasenko saw Barkov making his usual magic around the net before his sharp angle rebound was poked into the net by Evan Rodrigues to put Florida ahead 1-0 at the 27 second mark.

The inspired start by Florida was soon overcome by wave after wave of Boston pressure, which culminated in a clapper by Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy that beat Sergei Bobrovsky up high and tied the game at one late in the period.

It wasn’t quite late enough though, as Sam Reinhart used his skate to deflect a pass by Eetu Luostarinen past Jeremy Swayman 1:03 after McAvoy’s goal to sent the Cats into the intermission with a 2-1 lead.

In a second period full of penalties and physicality, it was the Burins who scored the only goal.

David Pastrnak was left all alone in front of Bobrovsky and sent his 45th goal and 100th point of the season past Bobrovsky, and we were tied once again.

A fast moving third period with few whistles or shots on goal was interrupted by Florida’s late-game superstar Carter Verhaeghe.

Verhaeghe’s 33rd goal of the year, a snipe over Swayman’s glove midway through the third period gave the Panthers a lead for the third time.

And for a third time Boston tied the game a few minutes later off a Trent Frederic power play goal that came from a delay of game penalty by Evan Rodrigues.

Just 2:01 later, Pastrnak threw a puck toward Florida’s net and it deflected off the skate of Pavel Zacha and behind Bobrovsky into the open net, giving the Bruins their first and only lead of the game.

It would be the only one they’d need.

On to the Islanders.

Here are some thoughts and observations from Tuesday’s tilt with the Bruins:

Tarasenko has points in consecutive games for the first time since joining the Panthers. He’s got five points in nine games with Florida.

Barkov is one assist away the fourth 50-helper season of his career.

Bobrovsky finished with 17 saves on 21 shots. Boston’s expected goals was just 1.94, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Luostarinen’s assist on Reinhart’s first period goal was the 100th helper of his career.

A ridiculous 19 of Verhaeghe’s 33 goals this season have been scored during the third period. He’s scored in the final frame in three straight games for Florida. 

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