Pastrnak and Vatrano return, Bruins beat Panthers

Boston Bruins @ Florida Panthers game recap video, on December 22, 2016.

Bruins David Pastrnak and Frank Vatrano returned to the Bruins lineup as the Bruins could always use some help with offense. The Bruins managed to get a 3-1 win over the Panthers but there was some hockey history happening tonight as ex-Bruin and now Panthers Jaromir Jagr recorded an assist, his 1,888th point of his NHL career, moving him past NHL legend Mark Messier for 2nd place only behind Wayne Gretzky for the all-time scoring list.

Quick game summary
In the first period, no scoring happened.

In the second period, Bruins Frank Vatrano scored his 1st goal of the season, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Less than four minutes later, Bruins Patrice Bergeron scored his 5th goal of the season, a power-play goal, giving the Bruins a 2-0 lead.

In the third period, Panthers Aleksander Barkov scored, cutting the Bruins lead to 2-1. Late in the game, Bruins David Backes scored his 8th goal of the season, an empty-net goal, giving the Bruins a 3-1 lead.

Game notes
Tuukka Rask played in net and made 29 saves on 30 shots. Rask is now 17-6-0-3 with a 1.87 GAA and a .930 save percentage this season.

The Bruins led the game with a 56% faceoff percentage and shots 33-30. The Panthers led the game in hits 21-12 and blocked shots 15-13. The Bruins went 1-for-3 on the power-play while the Panthers went 0-for-3.

David Backes led the Bruins with 4 shots. Anton Blidh led the Bruins with 3 hits. Adam McQuaid led the Bruins with 4 blocked shots.

Noel Acciari, Tim Schaller and Joe Morrow were scratched for the Bruins.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 18-14-3 with 39 points this season and are in 3rd place in the Atlantic division. The Bruins are now 4-4-2 in their last 10 games and their road record is now 10-5-3 this season. The next game for the Bruins is tomorrow (Friday), when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes, at 7:30pm ET.