BOSTON (AP) — Down four goals after two periods, Florida coach Joel Quenneville switched goalies and the Panthers responded with the biggest comeback in club history.
Mike Hoffman scored one of four Florida goals in the third period and added the winner in a shootout as the Panthers rallied from a four-goal deficit and beat the Boston Bruins 5-4 on Tuesday night.
"Obviously, you don't want to be down 4-0 at any point in the game — especially with only one period left," Hoffman said. "But the guys in here stuck together, dug deep and just tried to chip away."
The Panthers continued chipping away and won a game they trailed by four goals for the first time since they joined the NHL as an expansion club in 1993-94.
Keith Yandle had a goal and two assists for Florida and Sam Montembeault didn't allow a goal after replacing Sergei Bobrovsky at the start of the third period.
Montembeault finished with 15 saves, six in overtime, and stopped Charlie McAvoy on Boston's last chance in the shootout as the Panthers completed the comeback and gave Quenneville career victory No. 899.
"It's huge. We never gave up. We talked to each other after the second," Montembeault said.
Aaron Ekblad and Frank Vatrano also scored for Florida. Jonathan Huberdeau added three assists for the Panthers, tying him with Stephen Weiss for the most assists in club history with 249.
Florida won its second straight game in a shootout and picked up four points on a three-game road trip against the Islanders, Rangers and Bruins.
"We found a way to come up with big wins and today was the biggest of them all," Quenneville said.
David Pastrnak scored his league-leading 16th goal for Boston, which broke a scoreless tie with four goals in the second, but could not hold off Florida.
The Panthers got two power-play goals in the third and scored twice at even-strength before prevailing in the shootout.
"Things got compounded," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. "It seemed like we took a lot of marginal penalties tonight and we didn't kill them."
Joakim Nordstrom, Anders Bjork and Zdeno Chara also scored for Boston, and Tuukka Rask made 25 saves.
David Krejci had two assists for Boston, which lost its fourth straight.
"We had some looks," Rask said. "Definitely if it's four-nothing going into the third you expect to win."
Pastrnak put the Bruins up 1-0 at 11:55 of the second on a wrist shot from the top of the left circle. Nordstrom beat Bobrovsky 2:07 later on a wrist shot from the right circle to make it 2-0 for the Bruins.
Boston added goals by Bjork and Chara, taking a 4-0 lead into the third. Florida regrouped after Quenneville pulled Bobrovsky for Montembeault.
Ekblad scored 50 seconds into the third, Vatrano cut the margin to 4-2 on a power-play goal 5:26 into the period and the Panthers weren't done.
Hoffman scored on a backhand 9:43 into the third and Yandle, who assisted on two of Florida's first three goals, completed the comeback when he scored with 1:39 left in regulation after a rebound drifted to him high in the slot.
NOTES: Bobrovsky stopped 19 of 23 shots in the first two periods. . Play was halted for a few minutes in the first period when the arena lights flickered with the Panthers on a power play. . Bruins D Torey Krug, who left Sunday's loss to Philadelphia in the third period with an upper-body injury, was not in the lineup. . The Bruins entered the game 9-2-1 when scoring the first goal. . Florida C Noel Acciari, who spent the first four years of his career with the Bruins before signing with the Panthers in the offseason, made his return to Boston. . Bruins LW Brad Marchand was playing in his 699th career game. . Yandle has eight assists in his last seven games.
UP NEXT
Panthers: Host Winnipeg on Thursday night.
Bruins: At Toronto on Friday night.
