Florida Panthers stay hot by shutting out Boston Bruins 2-0 for third straight -NHL Update
Florida continued to stay hot to win their third straight contest of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season and overtook the second place of the Eastern Conference as the Panthers shutout the Boston Bruins, 2-0, on Thursday night, December
8, 2011, at the sold-out TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
The Panthers improved to the second spot by gaining those extra two points and now stand above the Boston Bruins, who are in third place, just by a point with 36. If Florida can manage to win their upcoming games, they can easily take over the first position
which at the moment is in the hands of Philadelphia Flyers with 37 points.
The first 40 minutes of regulation were certainly very intense as both teams failed to score a single goal and a number of fights broke out between Boston’s Shawn Thornton and Florida’s Krystofer Barch in the first period, while Johnny Boychuk and Jack Skille
exchanged fists in the second.
Entering the third and final period with both teams yet to score, Boston and Florida were on the edge as all players looked to fire the puck at any chance they got.
"When it's a tie game on the road after two periods, you know you're sitting pretty good," Florida goalie, Jose Theodore, said. "It was just about making that next save. The guys came through scoring big goals, came through on the PK. And it's a team effort
tonight."
With the final minutes leading to the end of regulation counting down, Florida found the opportunity to take the lead as Tomas Kopecky fired off his fourth of the season at the 17:28 mark while Kris Versteeg secured the match nearly two minutes later with
his 13th.
"You could see they were just waiting for a mistake to take advantage of," Bruins coach, Claude Julien, said about the Florida Panthers in the final period. "And that's just what they did."
Florida will be looking to win their fourth straight against the Buffalo Sabres on Friday while Boston will be facing off against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
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