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Spooner and Bruins beat Panthers in Hub

December 12, 2015, 4:55 PM ET [26 Comments]
Ty Anderson
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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The Boston Bruins were not going to rest on the laurels of their comeback win in Montreal on Wednesday night. Determined to break away from the pack in the middling Atlantic Division, the B’s put forth yet another team effort in a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers at TD Garden on Saturday.

“That’s what good teams do. We’re consistent; we have to stay consistent,” B’s forward Zac Rinaldo said. “That’s what’s going to make us better moving forward – stay consistent, improve on the little details that we need to work on in practice and I think it starts in practice.”

The Bruins scored the game’s first goal with Ryan Spooner’s undeniably high tip-in off a Torey Krug shot 11:35 into the first period. The goal was instantly protested by Florida netminder Roberto Luongo. But after a review courtesy of the NHL Situation Room in Toronto that found inclusive footage in determining whether or not Spooner’s stick made contact with the puck above the crossbar, the goal stood for Spooner’s sixth of the season.

The goal extended Spooner’s point streak to three games, and stood as his first even-strength goal since Oct. 23 against the New York Islanders, a whopping 21 games ago for No. 51.

Put to work with a second period power play opportunity, Spooner struck once more for the Black and Gold with a power-play goal for his seventh of the season (and fourth on the man advantage).

The Panthers found a brief spark (if you want to call it that) behind Shawn Thornton’s double-minor roughing against Rinaldo following Rinaldo’s charge of Connor Brickley, but the ‘Cats had little answers for a Boston defense that wouldn’t give them an inch.

“It was a pretty flat game, it was a defensive-minded game and there wasn’t a whole lot of scoring chances,” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. “Fortunately for them they [the Bruins] got that first goal and it held up for quite awhile and we just didn’t generate enough tonight.”

Luongo did his job for Florida behind a 22-of-24 showing with some great stops, which included a 2-on-1 save on a Loui Eriksson-Matt Beleskey rush with 3:33 to go in the third period.

But when No. 1 departed for the bench, and before he was even off the ice for that matter, Brad Marchand put the nail in the game with an empty-net goal, the 14th of the year for Marchand.

B’s netminder Tuukka Rask got the win for the Bruins behind a 26-of-27 contest, and improved to 9-1-0 with a .967 save percentage in 10 career home games against Florida.

NOTES: Spooner’s two-goal game was the first of his 2015-16 season, and third of his career… Patrice Bergeron extended his point streak to four games with an assist on Spooner’s second goal… Florida forward Derek MacKenzie left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury… Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck played in his 100th NHL game…

Up next

The Bruins return to TD Garden ice for a Monday showdown with the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers took the earlier head-to-head between these teams with a shootout victory in Edmonton on Dec. 2.

Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Boston Chapter of the Pro Hockey Writers Association since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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