The Bruins had their chances Wednesday night in Sunrise.

But it takes emptying the bucket (and then some) to knock off the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions. And though the Bruins were able to push the Panthers to the brink with a multi-goal comeback in the third period of play, it was ex-Bruins captain Brad Marchand who gave the Panthers the extra top-shelf, backhanded pop in the shootout to seal the deal on a 5-4 shootout win at Amerant Bank Arena.

“We’ve proven all year that we’re going to fight until the final horn blows, and obviously [it was] huge to get a point there,” Casey Mittelstadt, who scored the game-tying goal on the power play in the third period but was denied in the shootout with a chance to extend the game, said. “Pretty salty that we didn’t get the other way, but it was a good third period, especially to earn a point on the road.”

Up 2-1 through 20 minutes of play behind a pair of goals from Mikey Eyssimont, including an out-of-the-box dazzler, the Bruins quickly found themselves down behind back-to-back goals from the Florida power play. Florida’s game-tying goal and the go-ahead goal on the man advantage came within a span of just 2:17 for the Bruins, and once again saw the Black and Gold’s penalty woes come back to bite them.

Boston’s special teams struggles were over with just two power-play goals against, though, as the Bruins found themselves down by two by the end of the period thanks to an Anton Lundell shorthanded goal.

But in the third period, the Bruins sliced their deficit in half when Mark Kastelic deflected a Charlie McAvoy shot through Sergei Bobrovsky, while a Mittelstadt power-play marker knotted the sides up at 4-4.

Mittelstadt’s goal with a noteworthy switch from the Bruins, as Marco Sturm decided to put Mittelstadt in what was Fraser Minten’s spot as the center on the Black and Gold’s top power-play unit.

After the game, Sturm acknowledged that he made that switch due to Boston’s faceoff struggles throughout the night (especially on the power play), as well as the fact that he felt that Minten was looking tired.

With the loss, the Bruins will head back to Boston 0-0-2 on their two-game swing through Florida. A winless trek is never a joy for any coach, but it’s a truly difficult road trip to analyze for Sturm, especially given the circumstances of each game and how they got those two points.

“They’re big points, I’m not going to lie,” Sturm said after the loss. “It’s been a grind. You can see now those points are big. And unfortunately, twice we’ve come up short in the shootout. That’s where we have to get better, too, because at the end of the day, you might need them.

“But, going to Florida, it’s not always an easy trip. They’re the Stanley Cup champions here, and Tampa being the hottest team in the league, and we survived. So, I give my guys to this point, a lot of credit. Nobody thought we would be in the position we are right now, and I’m proud of them. And I think for all of us, it’s good to have a little break and come back ready to go for a really big month.”

The Bruins will now go on the Olympic break for almost a full month. Boston’s next game will not be until Feb. 26 when they host the Blue Jackets at TD Garden. It will be the first of three suddenly gigantic head-to-heads between the Bruins and Blue Jackets down the stretch, as Columbus is the closest team to the Bruins in the wild card race and have been on fire under new head coach Rick Bowness.