The Bruins earned the power play when nemesis Sam Bennett got his stick high in Charlie McAvoy’s face at the Bruins crease.

The Panthers had tied it at 3 with 1.8 seconds left when Reinhart scored his second of the game with Bobrovsky pulled. It was Florida’s first six-on-five goal this season.

“What a big win for us. We obviously needed it, so good win,” said Pastrnak, who has 19 goals on the season and an NHL-best 127 since the start of 2022-23. “I don’t think either of the teams played their ‘A’ game. Those afternoon games are tough, but it’s huge for us to be able to come out with a win.

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Bruins captain Brad Marchand (63) is aside the crease to watch David Pastrnak’s shot slip past a screened Sergei Bobrovsky.Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

“Obviously not happy with the late goal, but at the same time, it happened. We’ve been in a slump for a while, so hell of a win for us and moving forward now.”

The game lacked the bite normally seen when these two Atlantic Division rivals match up. Sure, there was the normal pushing and shoving after the whistle, but outside of a brief exchange between Trent Frederic (two for roughing) and former Bruin A.J. Greer (four for roughing), there wasn’t much of a snarl factor.

Despite being outplayed for long stretches and outshot, 43-18, the Bruins held three one-goal leads. All evaporated, the last one on Reinhart’s 25th of the season that capped a furious final five minutes of regulation.

“Well, obviously they were pushing hard. They are a really good offensive team, and we had a little trouble. We struggled coming out of our D zone under the pressure there towards the end,” said Bruins coach Joe Sacco. “A few icings that we weren’t able to get line changes, so we had some players stuck out there for a lot of minutes and they found a way to tie it.

“But fortunately for us, we showed some resiliency in overtime, and we found a way to get one right towards the end as well.”

Boston improved to 21-19-5, including 13-10-2 under Sacco’s watch.

The teams traded goals all afternoon, with Morgan Geekie’s top-shelf backhander giving Boston its first lead with a power-play strike at 6:02 of the first.

It was Boston’s first goal with the man advantage in its last nine games.

Former Boston University standout Evan Rodrigues, who always seems to stand out against the Bruins, tied it. Rodrigues parked at Jeremy Swayman’s post and shoveled home a rebound of a Uvis Balinskis’s blue line bomb off Swayman’s pads.

The Bruins survived a cross-checking call on Andrew Peeke (who had been crunched face-first into the glass by Eetu Luostarinen) before taking their second lead of the game. The newly formed trio of Trent Frederic-Geekie-Pastrnak made it happen.

Pastrnak dumped the puck in, and it was retrieved by Frederic, who left it for Geekie. He curled around and hit Pastrnak, who had beaten Dmitry Kulikov to the slot, for the tap-in.

“Geeks was patient with it and gave me time to beat the D to the net and found me with a nice pass,” said Pastrnak.

Reinhart tied it at 2 just 43 seconds into the third when he tapped in a sweet cross-slot feed from Aleksander Barkov.

Just a minute and a half later, the Bruins regained the lead when Oliver Wahlstrom flicked home a McAvoy rebound for his first goal as a Bruin.

Oliver Wahlstrom (center) celebrates his first Bruins goal with linemates Justin Brazeau and Trent Frederic during the third period.Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

“It was good work by us three down low and the D, getting in and just getting to the net more when pucks aren’t going in, to hang out around there,” said Wahlstrom. “So, I was able to bang it in.”

The Panthers (25-15-3) pushed hard after Wahlstrom’s goal and, save for a couple of Pastrnak breakaways that Bobrovsky handled, dominated possession. They pressured Swayman (40 saves), who held on until Reinhart’s pop shot landed in the back of the net.

With no time to sulk, Sacco delivered a quick message before the OT puck drop.

“We just have to keep playing,” he told the bench. “We’ve put ourselves in that situation and now you have an opportunity to grab that extra point in overtime, put it behind you, just keep playing.”

It was a missive well received by Pastrnak, Marchand & Co.

Elias Lindholm and Jeremy Swayman embrace after Saturday’s victory.Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.