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Chara's two goals help Bruins edge Panthers

Nov 30, 2007 - 5:48 AM SUNRISE, Florida (Ticker) -- Zdeno Chara decided to do something about the Boston Bruins' lack of success against the Florida Panthers.

Chara scored twice as the Bruins posted a 4-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

Glen Metropolit tallied for the sixth time this season and Marc Savard added to his league-leading total with two assists for Boston, which snapped a six-game losing streak against Florida.

"We don't worry about last year," Chara said. "We live in the present. We know we didn't have a good record against them last year, but we want to beat any team we play."

The Bruins, who improved to 2-1-0 on their current six-game road trip, had dropped six straight meetings with the Panthers while being outscored, 33-17, during the skid.

Thanks to the 6-9 Chara, Boston put an end to that slide.

The Bruins' captain put his team in front midway through the first period, when Marco Sturm made a cross-crease pass to Chara, who snuck in on the left side and beat goaltender Craig Anderson from close range.

Boston doubled its lead just 39 seconds in the second session as defenseman Aaron Ward rifled a shot from just inside the blue line that bounced off the pads of Anderson. Metropolit, standing just to the right of the net, slapped in the rebound to give the Bruins a 2-0 advantage.

After Florida blue-liner Steve Montador one-timed a shot past netminder Tim Thomas at 2:49 of the period for a power-play goal, Chara restored Boston's two-goal bulge.

With a man advantage, the two-time All-Star received a touch pass from fellow defenseman Dennis Wideman before blasting a 56-foot shot between the pads of Anderson with 3:36 left in the middle session.

"We could have scored eight or nine goals tonight," Thomas said. "We outplayed them and deserved to get the win. It wasn't that they gave us anything."

It capped Chara's fifth career two-goal game and first since scoring twice against his current team on April 11, 2006 while with the Ottawa Senators.

Savard registered his second assist of the night and 24th of the season on the play.

Phil Kessel scored five minutes into the third period and Thomas stopped 32 shots for Boston, which has won four of its last five games.

"We came out strong, and there's no doubt we had a good first period," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "In the third period, we started trading chances and got content instead of playing our game."

Thomas entered with a career record of 0-4-1 and 5.02 goals-against average against Florida. He credited Chara's ability to neutralize Panthers captain Olli Jokinen for his success.

"Olli Jokinen is one of the best forwards in the league, and (Chara) was able to frustrate him for most of the night," Thomas said.

David Booth tallied with 2:19 left and Jokinen scored with 30 seconds remaining for the Panthers, whose four-game winning streak ended.

"To be honest with you, we didn't play that well last night either," Jokinen said, referring to Wednesday's 11-round shootout win in Washington. "It sometimes goes like that. We had enough chances. It just wasn't there tonight."

Anderson made 34 saves for Florida, which had not lost to Boston since November 3, 2005.

"We didn't get in until late and the Bruins were sitting here," Panthers coach Jacques Martin said. "They were fresh, and it showed."