The Florida Panthers, once again, live to fight another day.
Mackie Samoskevich and Sam Bennett scored first-period goals to give Florida a lead it wouldn’t relinquish, Sergei Bobrovsky put on a goaltending clinic in the third and the Panthers beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday at Amerant Bank Arena.
With the win, Florida (37-35-3, 77 points) still is not mathematically eliminated from Stanley Cup playoff contention. The Panthers needed to lose in regulation and see at least one of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings or Ottawa Senators win in order to be formally eliminated on Thursday.
But Florida took care of business on Thursday, scoring twice in the first 7:39 and generally controlled the pace against the Bruins (43-35-8) all night.
Samoskevich opened scoring 4:20 into regulation, corralling the puck from behind the Bruins’ net, skating into the left circle and firing a wrist shot past Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
Samoskevich has scored goals in each of the past three games for Florida and has now found the back of the net nine times this season.
Bennett scored a little over three minutes later, picking up a rebound off an A.J. Greer shot on goal and sending it past Swayman from the slot.
Fraser Minten scored for Boston with 26.7 seconds when he picked up a loose puck on the doorstep and sent it past Bobrovsky.
Bobrovsky made 27 saves, including going a perfect 19 for 19 in the final 40 minutes and 14 for 14 in the third period as Boston made a frantic attempt to tie the game.
The Panthers now head on their final road trip of the season — a five-game stretch that includes back-to-back games at the Pittsburgh Penguins at 5 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday followed by the Montreal Canadiens at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Ottawa Senators at 7 p.m. Thursday and Toronto Maple Leafs at 7 p.m. April 11.
The regular-season concludes with home games against the New York Rangers at 7 p.m. April 13 and Detroit Red Wings at 7 p.m. April 15.