SUNRISE, Fla. – The Florida Panthers are getting hot at just the right time, while the Boston Bruins are struggling.
Jose Theodore stopped 24 shots and the Panthers scored three second-period goals to beat the Bruins 6-2 on Thursday night.
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Wojtek Wolski, Tomas Kopecky, John Madden, Stephen Weiss, Marcel Goc and Mikael Samuelsson scored for the Panthers. Brian Campbell had three assists.
Florida has won three straight games and increased its lead in the Southeast Division to three points ahead of idle Washington.
“We want to play well at home to enthuse our fan base,” Panthers Coach Kevin Dineen, a former Portland Pirates coach, said. “We want to be homers, be a good home team. I think we’ve shown that.”
Brian Rolston and Joe Corvo scored, and Tim Thomas made 23 saves for the Bruins, who gave up six goals for the second straight game.
“That’s twilight zone-ish. I don’t know what we did, but we did something to put luck not on our favor that’s for sure,” Thomas said. “I haven’t seen a run of bounces like this in a long time.”
The Bruins have lost four straight and six of their last eight.
“It was basically a whole team collapse tonight,” Bruins Coach Claude Julien said. “We do have some guys that are tired and unfortunately guys that are not playing up to par. At the same time we’ve got lots of games and we have to fight our way through it.”
Leading 1-0, Florida outscored Boston 3-1 in the second period.
The Panthers went ahead 2-0 on a goal by Goc 38 seconds into the period. Brian Campbell took a shot from just inside the blue line. Goc redirected the puck with his stick into the net.
The Bruins closed to 2-1 after Corvo scored a goal on a slap shot from the left circle at 4:53 of the second.
The Panthers went ahead 3-1 on Weiss second-period rebound goal, his first in eight games.
“It was a big hockey game for us for sure,” Weiss said. “We knew we were either two points back or six points back (of Boston), so that’s a big win for us.”
Florida stretched its lead to 4-1 on Madden’s goal, his first of the season. The puck went off the top of Madden’s stick and into the net with 4:33 to go.
Boston made it 4-2 on Rolston’s power-play goal early in the third. It was Rolston’s first goal in 10 games since he came to the Bruins in a trade with the Islanders.
NOTES: The Bruins have signed goaltender Adam Morrison of the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League to a three-year entry-level contract., Morrison was an unrestricted free agent after the Philadelphia Flyers did not sign him within two years of selecting him in the third round (81st overall) of the 2009 draft. In 56 games with the Giants and Saskatoon Blades, Morrison is 35-17-2-1 with a 2.80 goals-against average. … The Bruins are 1 for 15 on the power play in their last seven games.
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