BOSTON –– It seemed like Morgan Geekie had sent the game to overtime, but a quirky goal from the Florida Panthers decided otherwise.
The rebound of Carter Verhaeghe’s shot hit off of Andrew Peeke’s foot and towards a vacant crease with 26 seconds remaining in the third period Tuesday night at TD Garden.
Despite an energized final frame from the Bruins – which included coming back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits – the unintentional bounce handed Boston a 4-3 loss to the Panthers.
“It is tough to swallow, you know. We battled for 20 minutes at the end to get back into it, and I think we deserved a better fate with our 20 minutes that we played,” Geekie said. “It’s one of those things that you don’t really have words to describe it. That is hockey sometimes.”
Mackie Samoskevich capitalized on the power play to put the Panthers ahead 1-0 at 1:01 of the first period. Florida doubled its advantage in the second period with a goal from former Bruin A.J. Greer. The forward snapped the puck home after the Panthers won an offensive-zone faceoff. Greer’s goal made it 2-0 at 2:01.
“For some reason, we have those moments. But again, I looked at all of them, and they’re all individual mistakes. So I can’t even tell you it’s a team thing,” head coach Marco Sturm said. “The good thing is it comes from individual mistakes. I always believe those kinds of mistakes – those are the ones you can fix.”
The Bruins charged into the third period, tying the game 2-2 by the five-minute mark. Pavel Zacha got Boston on the board after connecting down low with linemates Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson for the tap-in tally at 2:46.
