BOSTON – The Bruins continued their roll toward the postseason by dealing a potential death blow to the Florida Panthers’ chances in a decisive 5-1 victory Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.
The win puts the Bruins back in first place in the Atlantic Division with a one-point lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning and one game in hand with five still to play in the regular season.
The Bruins actually allowed the first goal of the game on a hard-nosed Jamie McGinn goal in front of the net, but it was all B's after that as they scored five unanswered goals and resoundingly won a pair of fights that broke out on Saturday afternoon as well.
Jake DeBrusk scored two goals in his first game back from injury, but it was Nick Holden who got the Bruins' scoring-fest going with his first goal as a member of the Black and Gold. Holden cut backdoor and redirected a David Krejci pass under the bar to tie things up in the first period. DeBrusk followed by finishing off a slick Ryan Donato dish from below the goal line after he won a race to the puck behind the Florida net.
Little more than 90 seconds into the second period, the Bruins were at it again as Ryan Donato stole a puck at the offensive blue line and then sniped a long distance shot past James Reimer for his fourth goal of the season. Patrice Bergeron added a power-play goal to really put things out of reach before DeBrusk scored goal No. 2 of the game that saw the Panthers yank Reimer in favor of Roberto Luongo.
Beyond that it was also a “Saturday is all right for fighting” kind of game with Adam McQuaid throwing a savage beat-down on Michael Haley and Noel Acciari thoroughly handling Mackenzie Weegar in his first NHL scrap as well. The two big negatives of the afternoon were Brandon Carlo being wheeled off the ice on a stretcher after his leg buckled in the corner in a battle for the puck and Riley Nash leaving after taking a puck off the side of the head and needing help off the ice and into the tunnel.