Roberto Luongo played in his 1,000th NHL game as the Florida Panthers survived the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Thursday night on BB&T Center. He joined Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy as the only goalies to reach that milestone. Luongo became the 322nd player to play in 1,000 games in the National Hockey League.
Florida(42-30-8) roared out with two goals in the first ten minutes of the contest. Aleksander Barkov scored his 27th goal of the season at 7:42 on assists from Evgenii Dadonov and Aaron Ekblad. Former Bruin Frank Vatrano made it 2-0 at the 9:34 mark on a feed by Nick Bjugstad.
Boston(49-19-12) was able to bounce back and converted on a power play with 4:41 left in the first. Ryan Donato put in his fifth goal of the campaign. Torey Krug and Andrew Marchand were credited with assists on the play.
In the second period, the Bruins struck quickly at 2:11 to tie the contest 2-2. Danton Heinen was able to connect on a shot by Luongo with assists from David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk.
After Aleksander Barkov left the game because of an injury with seven minutes to go in the period, the Panthers vindicated him on a goal with 5:37 remaining. Colton Sceviour sent the puck back to Mike Matheson at the left point. His wrist shot was deflected in by Jared McCann in the low slot past Tuukka Rask.
There is one more playoff spot still available in the Eastern Conference for the second wild-card position. Florida is four points behind the Philadelphia Flyers with two games left in the regular season.
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