Jeremy Swayman made a season-high 40 saves, and the Boston Bruins jumped out to a three-goal lead in the first period and cruised to a 4-1 win over the visiting Florida Panthers on Sunday afternoon.
Elias Lindholm, Mikey Eyssimont, Morgan Geekie and JJ Peterka all found the back of the net for Boston, which is on a four-game win streak and has earned seven straight victories on home ice. David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha each dished out a pair of assists.
Carter Verhaeghe scored Florida’s lone goal, and Jacob Markstrom stopped 32 shots as the Panthers lost for the second straight day.
Florida had a 41-36 advantage in shots.
There were a combined 126 penalty minutes in the game, with both teams called for two misconducts in the final eight seconds of a scoreless second period.
Both teams scored one power-play goal in a combined 14 opportunities.
An eventful start saw Boston’s Nikita Zadorov and Florida’s Brady Tkachuk drop the gloves right off the opening faceoff before two goals over 1:21 gave the Bruins near-immediate control.
Lindholm opened the scoring at 4:50, firing a wrister from above the left circle that broke through Markstrom’s pad and was deemed to have crossed the goal line before the netminder could cover the puck with his glove following a lengthy video review.
Eyssimont, who was recalled Saturday from AHL affiliate Providence for his season debut, doubled Boston’s advantage at 6:11. Stationed behind the net, he took Fraser Minten’s pass off the wall and stuffed home a wraparound goal.
After Swayman stopped nine shots across a pair of penalty kills, the Bruins drew 1:53 of 5-on-3 time and took a 3-0 lead. Geekie buried Pastrnak’s no-look feed with a one-timer from deep in the left circle.
The visitors got on the board on a power-play goal of their own with 1:55 left in the first, as Verhaeghe received Brady Tkachuk’s backhand pass from behind the net and blasted a top-shelf shot from the left dot.
Peterka added to the Boston lead only 58 seconds into the final frame. After Markstrom saved Zacha’s shot, Pastrnak picked up the rebound to the left of the cage and slipped a quick pass to Peterka, who fired a shot from the circle over the out-of-position netminder.
Swayman helped preserve the victory with crucial stops on Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk off turnovers in the third.
