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Bruins remain hot, skate past Panthers

Nov 22, 2008 - 6:10 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- The Florida Panthers have felt comfortable at TD Banknorth Garden lately. The Boston Bruins gave them some rough treatment this time around.

Patrice Bergeron and Marc Savard each recorded a goal and an assist as the Bruins extended their home winning streak to seven games Friday with a 4-2 triumph over the Panthers.

The run at home is Boston's longest since it posted eight straight victories in its own building from November 2-29, 2002.

Phil Kessel and David Krejci also scored for the Bruins, who improved to 8-0-1 this month. Boston has not lost in regulation since suffering a 3-2 setback at Calgary on October 30.

"Things have been going pretty well right now," said Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman, who notched an assist. "It's something that we have to try to continue to get better and keep pushing forward. There's still a lot of season left."

Boston coach Claude Julien insisted his team will not become overconfident.

"I don't think we feel too good about ourselves," he said. "We can start reading what you guys are writing and believe everything or we can stay in our own little bubble and understand what got us to where we are and realize that those kind of things are what's going to keep us there."

David Booth and Ville Peltonen tallied and blue-liner Bryan McCabe extended his points streak to six games with a pair of assists for Florida, which has lost three of four.

"They're a good team. They're playing well and we're not," said Panthers defenseman Nick Boynton, a former Bruin. "It doesn't make for much of a game. They deserved to win."

Entering with a five-game winning streak at Boston, the Panthers fell behind early in this one as Kessel extended his goal-scoring streak to three games just 2:46 into the contest. After receiving a pass from Savard at Florida's blue line, the 21-year-old raced in alone on Tomas Vokoun and slid the puck between the goaltender's pads for his 10th tally of the season.

Kessel and Savard both extended their points streaks to five games on the play.

Booth drew the Panthers even at 8:01, beating netminder Tim Thomas with a low shot from the inner edge of the right faceoff circle. Play continued as the referee signaled no goal, but after video review, Booth was awarded his team-leading ninth of the campaign.

"I didn't know (it went in)," Booth admitted. "I just shot it and I didn't see it, so I figured it was. It was a good surprise to see it went in, especially when it was 1-0."

"It was a good shot," Thomas said. "Not only was it a pretty hard shot, he shot it in mid-stride. He must have turned the puck exactly sideways to get it bouncing off the post like that because if the puck was level, it could not have gone in from that angle."

Bergeron put the Bruins ahead to stay two minutes later, deflecting defenseman Matt Hunwick's shot from the left point past Vokoun for a 2-1 edge. Bergeron credited Michael Ryder for keeping the play alive.

"He does not get pushed off the puck too often, and on that play, he made a great play just to get it back to the point," Bergeron said. "I was lucky enough to get the tip."

Boston took advantage of a miscue less than eight minutes into the second period to double its lead.

Florida defenseman Keith Ballard fell at the left point, allowing Krejci to gain control of the puck and lead a 2-on-1 rush. After dishing to Chuck Kobasew, whose wrist shot was stopped, Krejci backhanded the rebound by Vokoun at 7:43 for his fifth goal.

"I knew the defenseman fell, so I knew it was either 1-on-1 or 2-on-1," Krejci said. "So I checked, and I knew Chuck was going to be there somewhere."

During a power play less than two minutes later, Bergeron had his shot from the left circle blocked. But the puck went directly to Savard, who buried it from the slot at 9:26 for a 4-1 bulge.

"You can't get down three goals," McCabe said. 'We were in it going into the second, and we made a few errors and (gave up) a couple of gimme goals. It's tough to come back on a pretty good team like that."

Peltonen drew the Panthers within two when he backhanded a rebound past Thomas with 3:06 remaining in the third. But Florida was unable to get anything else by the netminder, who made 30 saves in improving to 5-0-1 in his last six games.

"We focused on playing a complete game," Thomas said. "They are not an easy team. They don't have a great record this year, but we've always had trouble with them in the past."

Vokoun turned aside 35 shots for the Panthers, who fell to 3-8-1 on the road.