The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers will not be around in June to defend their title, but they refuse to go gently into the night.

A severely hampered Panthers team jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and then leaned on a spectacular Sergei Bobrovsky in the third period to hang on to a 2-1 victory in Sunrise on Thursday. Bobrovsky stopped 28 of 29 Bruin shots, including all 15 in Boston’s wild third-period comeback attempt. Florida swept the season series.

“We didn’t respect our opponent. That’s the bottom line,” coach Marco Sturm told NESN. “We looked over probably and saw a lot of guys out and we didn’t respect the Stanley Cup champion. And that was it. That was the game. After that we were chasing. We addressed it before the game. It doesn’t matter who is in, who’s out for them They’re champions for a reason and we didn’t respect that at all. That’s frustrating.”

The B’s wasted an excellent performance from Jeremy Swayman, who faced many tough chances in the 22 saves he made. Morgan Geekie showed signs he was close to breaking out, firing 10 shots and landing three but his goal drought has now reached 15 games.

“It feels like tonight you kind of let everybody down,” Geekie told reporters in Florida. “You had your opportunities. It’s just tough. It’s been a tough stretch it feels like. It’s one of those things where you try and man up and gut through it. It does help when you win but this one stings a little more.”

That snapped the B’s four-game win streak as they start their four-game road trip with a loss in what, on paper, looked like their most likely victory.

But as we’ve seen with this team, they can play up to their competition, the B’s too often plays down to it as well. That was evident in the first period, especially.

With Ottawa and Detroit winning and Columbus losing, the B’s maintained their six-point cushion above the cut and the second wild card, which is now being held be the Senators. Both the Sens and Red Wings have a game in hand on the B’s. Montreal also won, pulling four points ahead of the B’s for third place in the Atlantic Division with a game in hand

The banged-up Panthers entered the game without 11 of their regulars, many of whom (including Brad Marchand) are done for the season.

But that didn’t stop the Cats from giving the usual fits to the B’s when the visitors were trying to break the puck out of their zone.

Florida took the first lead of the game on the first shot of the game at 4:20. Henri Jokiharju had won a puck battle against A.J. Greer behind the net only to have his pass intended for Pavel Zacha picked off by Mackie Samoskevich. To compound his mistake, Jokiharju went to the front of the net where he promptly screened Swayman, who could not locate Samoskevich’s shot.

The Panthers made it 2-0 with one of their old Bruin killers doing the damage. A blocked shot went right to Sam Bennett in the slot and he ripped it past Swayman, giving Florida a 2-0 lead at 7:39.

The B’s would get one back in the final minutes of the period. They had the only power play of the period that was unsuccessful but helped them get a little offensive zone time.

With the top line applying heavy pressure, David Pastrnak sent a puck toward the net that hit a couple of Florida skates before it there. Marat Khusnutdinov took a couple of whacks at it before it squirted out to Fraser Minten, who made a nice shift to his forehand to be able to lift it over a prone Bobrovskky with 26.7 seconds left in the period for his 17th.

The second period started in the same fashion as the first did, with the Panthers winning too many races and battles. Swayman had to made several good saves to keep the deficit at one. Matthew Tkachuk was all alone in front and Swayman made not one but two stops on him. Then he had to flash his right pad to stop Jesper Boqvist on a partial break.

The B’s, outshot 12-5 in the second, did flurry a little bit at the end of the period but not enough to actually challenge Bobrovsky. They still looked at a 2-1 deficit going into the third.

They did respond on the second shift of the third period, but Bobrovsky was up to the challenge. He stopped three close-range shots, one from Charlie McAvoy and two Grade As from Pastrnak.

While Swayman kept it a one-goal game with a couple of big stops on Bennett, chances were opening up for the B’s but Bobrovsky was on his game. He stoned the snake-bitten Geekie a couple of times.

“We finally played a little to our identity. We were getting hungry around the net,” said Sturm.

Geekie had another great chance with a little over 5:00 remaining in regulation when Elias Lindholm kept the puck in at the blue line and sent it down to a wide-open Geekie but Bobrovsky just got a piece of the shot and it went over the crossbar.

The B’s got a power play with 3:21 left when A.J. Greer tripped Elias Lindholm. Boqvist stole the puck from Pastrnak for a breakaway but Swayman made the stop.

With a few seconds left on the PP, Swayman was pulled for the extra skater. They had numerous chances but could just not pull even.