Bruins topple Panthers, extend point streak

Reigning Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark made 27 saves to lead the Boston Bruins to a 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night in Sunrise, Fla.

Charlie Coyle, John Beecher and Jake DeBrusk scored for the Bruins, who improved to 5-0-2 in their past seven games.

Anton Lundell scored for the Panthers, who had won seven of their previous eight games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 22 saves.

The Bruins are 2-0-0 against the Panthers this season. That's a bit of payback since the Panthers upset the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs last season after Boston set an NHL record with 135 points.

Panthers center Aleksander Barkov missed his second straight game due to a knee injury, although he did skate in the morning.

Neither team cashed in on its power plays as Boston went 0-for-3 and Florida went 0-for-2. The Panthers won 62.7 percent of the faceoffs.

Boston opened the scoring at 18:35 of the first period. With the teams skating four-on-four, Coyle took a drop pass in the neutral zone from Danton Heinen. Coyle, with speed, skated past the Panthers, faking out defenseman Brandon Montour just before scoring on a backhander.

Florida tied the score at 10:33 of the second period as Nick Cousins' shot went in off the right skate of Lundell. The Panthers' Evan Rodrigues was also in front of the net, providing a screen.

Less than one minute later, Boston took a 2-1 lead as Beecher skated around Bobrovsky for what appeared to be an easy goal. Beecher, though, lost control of the puck, shoving it along the goal line and not in ... until it bounced off the right arm of diving Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

The primary assist went to Jakub Lauko, who corralled a rebound and dished to Beecher.

Boston made it 3-1 at 14:19 of the second as DeBrusk rebounded his own shot and banged the puck in off the left post.

—Field Level Media