The Boston Bruins will look for their third straight victory Tuesday night at TD Garden against the Florida Panthers. Each team is fighting for their playoff lives with the season coming to an end with the Black and Gold four points ahead of the visiting Panthers. Boston will roll with Tuukka Rask between the pipes while the Panthers with counter with Roberto Luongo who is 4-1-1 in his last six decisions. Daniel Paille will be a healthy scratch for the fourth straight game for the Bruins while Brett Connolly partook in warm-ups, but it not quite ready for game-action.

First period Quick hits:

-It seemed like it was going to be one of those nights for the Black and Gold where nothing was going to go their way. Torey Krug riffled a shot early that hit a post, David Krejci had a missile on the power-play that hit the cross bar and Reilly Smith missed the net on a breakaway off a perfect dish from Loui Eriksson. Boston also could not capitalize on either power-play they received in the first period.

-Loui Eriksson changed that while he put forth a great individual effort eventually beating Luongo on the backhand for one of his prettier goals this season to give the hometown team a 1-0 lead. It was Eriksson’s 20th goal of the year while Carl Soderberg notched his 30th assist of the season. It was just the start the B’s were looking for–now it’s time to build that lead.

-The Panthers received their first power-play, but then seconds later Brian Campbell tripped Patrice Bergeron killing any momentum the Panthers were looking to build. It was actually the B’s that gained the momentum which led to Eriksson’s tally.

-Eriksson’s tally is a great sign for the Black and Gold as Julien’s team is 22-5-3 on the season when leading after the first period. The Panthers are 3-16-6 when trailing after 20 minutes of play.

First period stats:

-Zdeno Chara leads all Bruins’ skaters with 7:41 of total ice time while Erik Gudbranson led all Panthers’ skaters with 7:55 of total ice time.

-Florida is outhitting Boston 11-10

-Each team has won nine face-offs.

-Panthers have blocked seven shots to the Bruins three.