BOSTON — The new-look Bruins continued their surprising success.
Pavel Zacha’s goal with 3:27 left capped Boston’s stunning third-period comeback as they erased a two-goal deficit to beat the Panthers, 3-2, on Tuesday at TD Garden.
The Bruins caught a break with 1:31 left when Sam Reinhart’s shot trickled through Jeremy Swayman and into the goal. But the referees lost sight en route and blew the whistle before it went over the line.
Adding to the satisfaction for Bruins fans, Nikita Zadorov got the better of a late fight with Bruins’ nemesis Sam Bennett with 3 seconds left.
The Bruins (30-28-8) return to action Thursday when they travel to Ottawa to take on Linus Ullmark and the Senators.
Boston has continued to play motivated since the trade deadline.
Dmity Kulikov broke the ice, 4:27 into the game. The Russian defenseman sizzled a slap shot from the point past a screened Jeremy Swayman to make it 1-0.
Neither team scored again through the first two periods.
The Panthers got in the Bruins’ collective heads again in the third period. After Patrick Brown was called for kneeing, Nikita Zadorov got the only penalty among a series of shoving matches for dragging down Sam Reinhart behind the play.
Mackie Samoskevich scored on the ensuing 5-on-3 to make it 2-0 with 15:11 left in the game.
But the Bruins didn’t fold. Casey Mittestadt’s pretty backhand pass set up David Pastrnak to a power play goal that made it 2-1 with 11:04 left.
Then Mason Lohrei tied the game with 6:09 remaining. The young defenseman walked in from the point and wristed a shot by Sergei Bobrovsky to tie the game.
Bobrovsky made 21 saves for Florida, while Swayman stopped 21 for Boston.
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