Carter Verhaeghe scored the deciding goal with 25.7 seconds left in the third period and Brad Marchand recorded two assists in his return to Boston, as the visiting Florida Panthers beat the Bruins 4-3 on Tuesday night.
The final frame featured five combined goals between the teams, including two by the Bruins in an early two-minute span. Marchand then set up Eetu Luostarinen’s go-ahead tally with 10:02 to play, dishing a backhand feed that led through the neutral zone.
Morgan Geekie brought the Bruins back even with an extra-attacker goal in front at the 18:29 mark, but Verhaeghe got credit for a wacky final goal that ricocheted off the post, then off Boston defenseman Andrew Peeke and past goaltender Jeremy Swayman (19 saves).
Mackie Samoskevich and AJ Greer also scored and Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves for Florida, which snapped a four-game losing streak.
Pavel Zacha had a goal and an assist, David Pastrnak and Casey Mittelstadt each logged two assists, and Elias Lindholm also scored in Boston’s fifth straight setback.
Marchand, who was brought to tears during a video tribute shown inside TD Garden at the first timeout, played in 1,090 regular-season games across 16 seasons as a Bruin and served as Boston’s captain for two seasons before a March 7 trade to Florida. The Panthers signed him to a six-year contract in free agency this summer.
Early in the third, Swayman’s pad save on Sam Bennett just 1:08 in created a big swing in the game, as the Bruins rattled off two goals before the period was five minutes old.
A wide-open Zacha scored the first Boston goal at the 2:46 mark, taking advantage of a turnover in the corner by slotting home Mittelstadt’s feed to the back post.
At 4:46, Lindholm tipped Pastrnak’s point shot through Bobrovsky’s five-hole to tie the game on the power play.
After Tanner Jeannot tripped Marchand just 33 seconds into the game, the Panthers scored on the ensuing power play. Samoskevich took the ultimate whack in the crease after Anton Lundell triggered an initial shot from the right circle and Marchand handled the initial rebound.
Another former Bruin doubled the Florida lead 2:01 into the middle frame. Greer surprised Swayman with a quick snapshot off Jonah Gadjovich’s faceoff win.
Marchand nearly created a third Panthers goal with less than eight minutes left in the second, dishing a cross-ice pass to Anton Lundell on a short-handed odd-man rush, but Swayman made the stop.
The Bruins appeared to score a few minutes later, but after Bobrovsky saved Mikey Eyssimont’s wraparound attempt, play was blown dead before Jeannot’s rebound crossed the goal line.
