Bruins faceoff against Tim Thomas and Panthers

SUNRISE, FL - OCTOBER 17: Reilly Smith #18 of the Boston Bruins celebrates his game winning goal with teammates Patrice Bergeron #37 and Loui Eriksson #21 against the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center on October 17, 2013 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)

On Thursday night the Bruins visited the Florida Panthers and faced old teammate Tim Thomas, who was playing in his first game back from hurting his groin earlier this season. The Bruins dominated the first period but Tim Thomas kept the Panthers in the game otherwise the Bruins could have been up big. The Bruins then seemed to let up in the second period and the Panthers came back with a goal. In the third period, the Panthers tied it up but late in the game, new Bruin Reilly Smith scored his 1st goal to win it for the Bruins.

It's looking like Claude Julien made a great move by putting Smith on the second line with Loui Eriksson and Patrice Bergeron and moving Brad Marchand onto the third line who hasn't done much this season so far.

Quick game summary
In the first period, Bruins Daniel Paille scored his 1st goal of the season, making it 1-0 Bruins. Later in the period, Bruins Dougie Hamilton scored his 1st goal of the season, a power-play goal, making it 2-0 Bruins.

In the second period, Panthers Kris Versteeg scored, making it 2-1.

In the third period, Panthers Jesse Winchester scored, tying the game 2-2. With 59 seconds left in the game, Bruins Reilly Smith scored his 1st goal of the season and as a Bruin, making it 3-2 Bruins.

Game notes
Tuukka Rask played in net and made 27 saves on 29 shots. Rask is now 4-2-0 with a 1.51 GAA and a .947 save percentage this season.

The Bruins led the game in shots 40-29, hits 31-27 and faceoff wins 31-26. The Panthers led the game in blocked shots 14-3. The Bruins went 1-for-3 on the power-play while the Panthers went 0-for-1.

Dougie Hamilton led the Bruins with 5 shots. Milan Lucic and Jordan Caron led the Bruins with 5 hits each.

Player notes
Defenseman Adam McQuaid was scratched and Dougie Hamilton came back into the lineup. Carl Soderberg did not play again.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 4-2-0 with 8 points and in 5th place in the Atlantic Division. The next game for the Bruins is on Saturday at the Tampa Bay Lightning at 7pm ET.