The Boston Bruins picked up two huge points in their pursuit of a playoff spot on Saturday afternoon with a rather convincing 5-2 win over the collapsing Florida Panthers.
Patrice Bergeron scored a pair of goals in the win, while Brad Marchand was able to get one goal closer to the 40-goal mark when he scored his 39th of the season late in the third period to help put the game away.
Even the score remained close for much of the game (the Bruins pulled away with a couple of late goals) this was a pretty one-sided matchup as the Bruins dominated the game territorially and held a commanding edge on the shot chart through the first two periods. Late in the second period a costly turnover by Panthers goalie Reto Berra pretty much handed David Krejci his 23rd goal of the season for what would go on to be the game-winning goal.
Not the way you want to play that if you are an NHL goalie.
As for Marchand, his monster season for the Bruins continued as he added to his career-high in goals to keep him in second place on the NHL goal scoring leaderboard, currently trailing Sidney Crosby by four goals. Marchand needs just one goal over the Bruins final four games to become just the 14th different Bruin to score 40 goals in a season. He would be the first to do it since Glen Murray during the 2002-03 season. Only one other Bruin (Bill Guerin in 2001-02) has topped 40 since the 1992-93 season. Since the start of the 2015-16 season Marchand’s 76 goals are tied for the fourth most (Vladimir Tarasenko) in the NHL behind only Alex Ovechkin (83), Patrick Kane (80), and Sidney Crosby (79).
The win gives Boston 90 points in the standings and for the time being (pending the result of Saturday night’s game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings) moves them to the third playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. They are also just one point back of the Ottawa Senators.
For the Panthers, well, this one just continues a late season slide that has been the perfect ending to a woefully disappointing season. Since sweeping a five-game west coast road trip in Mid-February that seemed as if it could have been a turning point in their season, the Panthers are just 5-14-1 in the 20 games that have followed.