October 9 – Sam Bennett’s two goals helped the Florida Panthers begin their first Stanley Cup champion defense by defeating the Boston Bruins 6-4 on Tuesday night in Sunrise, Florida.
The Panthers also got goals from Eetu Lostarinen, Sam Reinhart (shorthanded), Jonah Gazovic and Ivan Rodriguez. Reinhart and Rodriguez each had an assist. Last season, Reinhardt was second in the NHL with 57 goals.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves in the win.
Boston’s goals came from Pavel Zacha (shorthanded), Charlie McAvoy, Trent Frederic and David Pastrnak (power play).
Bruins backup goaltender Jonas Korpisalo made 29 saves in the loss. Boston’s starting goaltender Jeremy Swayman ended his holdout Sunday by signing an eight-year, $66 million contract. State of Play.
Before Tuesday, Boston had won five consecutive season openers. The Bruins were eliminated from the playoffs by the Panthers the past two seasons.
The Panthers dominated the first period on Tuesday and took a 4-1 lead.
Florida opened the scoring at 6:27 when Bennett hit a loose puck.
Just 64 seconds later, Losstarinen scored again to give Florida a 2–0 lead.
Boston scored at 15:33 when Zacha’s wrist shot missed the crossbar.
Florida scored twice in the final 90 seconds. First, Reinhart outpaced McAvoy and scored a short-handed goal over Korpisalo’s left shoulder at 18:34. Then, with 26 seconds left in the game, Bennett scored on a rebound.
Florida took a 5-1 lead on its fourth possession with 9:12 left in the second quarter. Gajovic scored on a pass from Jesper Boqvist, who played for the Bruins last season.
At 12 minutes and 32 seconds of the second quarter, Boston increased the lead to 5–2 off of a rebound by McAvoy.
With 6:26 left in the third quarter, Rodriguez scored with a wrist shot off Korpisalo’s stick to give the Panthers a 6-2 lead.
Boston finished strong, with Frederic scoring with 3:09 remaining and Pastrnak scoring with 1:45 remaining, but Florida held on for the win.
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