Returning from a six-game road trip for their first home game since March 21, the Boston Bruins host the Florida Panthers in a Saturday afternoon showdown between the top two teams in the Atlantic Division.
The Bruins (45-17-15, 105 points) finished the trip with three straight wins, making a statement against a fellow Eastern Conference playoff competitor with a 4-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
“First place is on the line,” coach Jim Montgomery said. “Besides that, we really just want to continue what we’ve been doing, especially these last two games. … We feel that our play is in a good place.”
Recent results have extended the Bruins’ advantage over Florida (48-24-5, 101 points) to four points in the division standings entering the key clash.
Captain Brad Marchand hopes that the team can gain confidence from its play away from home.
“All these teams that we’re playing right now are tough and they’re playoff ready, playoff bound,” Marchand said. “It’s a great challenge every night. It’s the way you want to play.
“You want to play these tough games going down the stretch and getting prepared.”
Boston opened Thursday’s game with a dominant three-goal first period that was highlighted by Marchand becoming the fifth Bruins player to reach the career 400-goal milestone.
“It speaks about longevity, it speaks about your ability to make a tremendous amount of plays over the course of your career,” Montgomery said.
“There’s a guy that has been doubted his whole life and all he keeps doing is putting out any doubts in anyone’s mind about how great an athlete he is and (how) great a hockey player and Bruin he is.”
David Pastrnak and Danton Heinen each had a goal and an assist while Pavel Zacha set up a pair of tallies in Carolina.
Florida returned to its playoff-ready form Thursday in a 6-0 shutout of the Ottawa Senators. The victory snapped a skid of eight losses in 10 games (2-7-1) for the Panthers.
“Our group has been pretty good at staying even-keeled through this rough stretch,” Florida forward Sam Bennett said. “Any time you can have a game, a full 60-minute game like that, it’s going to be good for your confidence.”
Matthew Tkachuk led the Panthers with one goal and two assists against Ottawa. He was one of six different goal scorers on a night in which depth was crucial as illness ran through the dressing room.
“I liked that they were able to get their energy up for the game,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said Thursday. “We have 10 games in 17 days, this is our ninth in that set and we’ve got some guys sick. … Steve Lorentz played through intermittent vomiting. So, we’ve had a bunch of it go through our team and we’ve rallied together after our last two losses and it was good.”
The last line of defense, Sergei Bobrovsky, made 30 saves to record his fifth shutout of the season.
Saturday marks Florida’s final road contest of the regular season and gives it a chance to avoid a four-game season sweep.
Of course, a win would be crucial for any hopes of a division title.
“It’s all coming down (to the wire),” forward Anton Lundell said. “We are going to play against teams we are most likely going to play in the playoffs, so getting the confidence back is huge.”
–Field Level Media