In Boston, the Bruins’ Jesper Boqvist hit for the game winner off a breakaway, on Saturday with 2:-5 gone in extra time to give Boston a 3-2 win over the visiting Florida Panthers. 
“I took a chance and jumped in, and this time it worked,” said Boqvist, who hadn’t scored in his past seven games.
The Bruins are now five points clear of the Panthers atop the Atlantic Division ladder.
Linus Ullmark made 28 saves in the win.
Boston improved to 46-17-15.
“I think the way we’ve grown and matured as a team here throughout the year, and how we’ve been able to win games in the last stretch here. … They tied it up and we just kept battling,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “And that’s what I like, is that we’re just sticking with the process, we’re staying in the moment, we’re on to the next shift.”
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead on a marker from Matthew Tkachuk with 37 seconds gone on the game clock.
Charlie McAvoy knotted the game, 1-1, for Boston at 5:42 of the opening stanza.
“There’s a certain simplicity that we have to play [with], but it allows us to have success,” McAvoy said. “At times, it might be boring, but it’s winning hockey. So it’s getting the puck behind them, staying above them, being opportunistic but overall, not beating ourselves.”
The Panthers dropped to 48-24-6 off their ninth loss in 12 games.
“I like the way we played,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Tonight, we got better in the third period when we had nothing in the tank. To do that, they pushed through it. So I was happy with the effort, disappointed with the result.”
The Bruins’ Charlie Coyle hit off the power play at 15:45 of the middle frame to give the Boston a 2-1 lead.
It was Boston’s second strike on the power play in the last 23 chances.
“You can get a big goal on the power play, it can be huge,” Coyle said. “Especially come playoff time. So it’s a work in progress. There’s things we can do better, but of course it’s nice to see it go in.”
The Panthers forced the extra session when Alexander Barkov scored off a rebound at 5:24 of the third. tying the game, 2-2. The goal came with the teams skating four a side.
“I think our effort was really good,” Barkov said. “They got the lead there in the [second period], but we just stick with it. We played how we wanted to play and [Bobrovsky] was really good in the net, so I mean, of course you want to win these games, but came up short today.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves in the loss.
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