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Bruins rally to top Panthers in shootout

Feb 22, 2008 - 5:33 AM SUNRISE, Florida (Ticker) -- Alex Auld did not let the Boston Bruins' late comeback go to waste.

Marco Sturm scored the lone goal in the shootout and Auld stopped all three attempts he faced in the bonus format as the Bruins skated to a 5-4 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

Sturm had a goal and two assists in regulation and All-Star Marc Savard set up a pair of tallies for the Bruins, who became the third straight team to rally from a two-goal deficit against the Panthers.

"Coming into the third, one thing we knew was that (Florida) has blown two leads in a couple of games," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "We concentrated on getting that next goal and knew they'd probably tighten up after that. Those two points are huge for us."

Trailing, 4-2, late in the third period, the Bruins scored goals 98 seconds apart to tie the contest.

Captain Zdeno Chara scored a power-play goal off a feed from Sturm with 6:49 left, and Phil Kessel netted his 15th of the season with 5:12 remaining, beating All-Star goaltender Tomas Vokoun with a wrist shot.

"We didn't play our best game," Chara said. "We started well, a lot of energy. For some reason, we were trying too hard and getting frustrated. We hit a couple posts and (Vokoun) made some good saves."

After a scoreless overtime, Sturm started the shootout by sliding the puck between the pads of Vokoun.

"We knew they had a lot of two-goal leads and they blew it in the third period, and we just kept going," Sturm said. "It's a great feeling."

"Sturm can't go unnoticed for what he did for us tonight," Boston rookie Milan Lucic said. "He scored the first goal and helped set up the third. He did everything he needed to do."

Auld, who had replaced All-Star Tim Thomas to start the third period, made the advantage stand, stopping defenseman Steve Montador, Nathan Horton and captain Olli Jokinen to seal the win.

"The biggest thing is patience and trying not to bite too soon," Auld said. "It was pretty close on that first shot. It almost snuck through."

Montador, fellow blue-liner Jay Bouwmeester, Rostislav Olesz and Kamil Kreps each scored for the Panthers, who were outshot, 48-27.

"It can't be a coincidence, it's happened three nights in a row," Bouwmeester said of his team's failure to protect leads. "You've just got to get it in your head that you can't sit back and wait for bad things to happen. It's our own fault, we're doing it to ourselves."

Thomas allowed four goals on 12 shots and Auld made 15 saves for Boston, which improved to 3-0-1 on its five-game road trip that ends Saturday in Tampa Bay.

Vokoun finished with 44 saves.

"This is not the way you're going to win in this league," Vokoun said. "You can gamble when you're down. But we gamble no matter what, and it may be fun to watch, but it's definitely not the way to win games."