Bruins hand Panthers eighth straight home loss with OT goal by Krug

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Torey Krug scored with 52 seconds left in overtime, and the Boston Bruins handed the Florida Panthers their record eighth straight home loss, 2-1 at BB&T Center on Thursday.

Patrice Bergeron scored his 30th goal, and Jaroslav Halak made 32 saves for the Bruins (43-13-12), who have won four in a row and maintained their nine-point lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division.
"We're trying every night to bring our A game; if you don't have it, you have to] live with your B game and live with the results," Krug said. "Obviously if we can win with that game, it's a sign of a really good team."
***[WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Panthers highlights]*
MacKenzie Weegar scored for the Panthers (33-26-8), who are 0-6-2 at home since Jan. 16. Chris Driedger, making his first start since sustaining a lower-body injury in that game, made 25 saves.

Florida is four points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference and five points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division.
"We've got to look on the bright side of things, we stemmed the tide as far as playing the right way," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. "We still have some time here and have to get points in every single game going forward. That's got to be the mindset."
Weegar gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 6:55 of the second period with a one-timer from the high slot.
"I felt good," Weegar said. "We had a few days rest and we were talking about having a little bit more physicality, a little bit more bite to our game. Everybody did that tonight. We were going to the net hard, we were physical. We battled hard tonight. It's too bad that we couldn't be on the other side."
Bergeron made it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 11:00 when he tipped Krug's shot from the point. Brad Marchand had an assist to extend his point streak to 11 games, the longest active streak in the NHL.

Bergeron has scored at least 30 goals the past three seasons and six times in his NHL career. He needs two goals to match his NHL career high, which he set last season and in 2015-16.
"It's impressive to score 30 any year, especially a guy that takes so much pride in getting back the other way," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "[The] power play obviously has helped him. Playing with two good players. Six (times) for a guy that has tough matchups every night is impressive and we're proud of him."
Panthers center Aleksander Barkov had breakaway 1:45 into overtime but Halak saved his deke attempt.

"I knew who it was," Halak said. "He's one of the best in the League on breakaways. I just tried to stay with him, not to make the first move. I don't know who was backchecking on that one (forward David Krejci), but [he] did a good job trying to get him and didn't give him time to make any moves."
Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo left the game at 10:46 of the second period after being elbowed by Evgenii Dadonov, who was assessed a minor penalty after the original ruling of a major was changed upon review.
Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky missed a second consecutive game because of a lower-body injury he sustained during warmups before a 3-0 loss at the Calgary Flames on Sunday.

They said it

"I didn't think we had our best. I thought it was our B game for the most part. You've got to give them credit, they're desperate to get in (the playoffs). I didn't love our game, but I love the fact that we stayed in the game, gave ourselves a chance to win." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy
"It [stinks] losing. No one likes to lose, especially after the effort we put in tonight. I thought we battled hard throughout the whole 60 minutes. It's just a [bad] feeling. It [stinks], but we've got to take a lot of positives out of it." -- Panthers defenseman MacKenzie Weegar

Need to know

Cassidy did not have an update on Carlo after the game. … Marchand has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) during his streak. ... Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara played in his 1,551st NHL game, passing Alex Delvecchio for 15th in NHL history. ... Panthers forward Brett Connolly had an assist to end a streak of 10 games without a point. ... The teams alternated four minor penalties in a span of 2:50 early in the third period, including Panthers forward Frank Vatrano for interference for illegally touching the puck after coming out of the box.

What's next

Bruins: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, NESN, SUN)
Panthers: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, SN360, TVAS, FS-F, NHL.TV)