Bruins 8, Panthers 0
Brad Marchand's first hat trick capped a career-high five-point night and the surging Boston Bruins rode a four-goal first period en route to their sixth consecutive victory, an 8-0 rout of the visiting Florida Panthers on Friday night.
Patrice Bergeron added a goal and two assists and Milan Lucic, Benoit Pouliot and Dennis Seidenberg scored in the opening 20 minutes as Boston avenged a 2-0 defeat to Florida earlier this month – its only regulation home loss since Oct. 27.
Tuukka Rask was the beneficiary of the offensive explosion, turning aside 31 shots for his second straight shutout as the Bruins took over the Eastern Conference lead with 47 points.
Gregory Campbell also tallied and captain Zdeno Chara and Tyler Seguin added two assists each for the Bruins, who have outscored their opponents 30-7 during their winning streak and improved to 20-2-1 since Nov. 1.
Boston snapped a six-game losing streak against Panthers goaltender Jose Theodore, who was replaced by Scott Clemmensen after the first period.
Marchand started Florida toward its third straight loss with a shorthanded tally 5:56 into the contest and Milan Lucic doubled the advantage on the power play eight minutes later.
Boston put the game out of reach when Pouliot converted on a dazzling end-to-end rush and Seidenberg scored 31 seconds later for a 4-0 cushion.