Bruins rally from 2-goal deficit

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Boston Bruins knew they could rally from a 2-goal, third-period deficit Thursday night. Especially against a team that's been giving up leads of late.

Marco Sturm scored the only goal of the shootout to give the Bruins a 5-4 victory and hand the Florida Panthers another tough loss.

"We knew they had a lot of two-goal leads and they blew it in the third period and we just kept going," Sturm said. "It's a great feeling."

Sturm opened the shootout by beating Tomas Vokoun with a quick shot between the legs. He had been 0-for-4 in shootouts this season.

"He'd scored tonight, his confidence was there," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "I put him in there and told him he was going first again. He went out there and made it happen."

Boston goalie Alex Auld replaced starter Tim Thomas after the second period and stopped Steve Montador, Nathan Horton and Olli Jokinen in the shootout.

Sturm, Dennis Wideman, Zdeno Chara and Phil Kessel scored in regulation for the Bruins, who are 5-0-1 in their past six road games.

Jay Bouwmeester, Montador, Rostislav Olesz and Kamil Kreps scored for the Panthers, who have lost three in a row and five of six.

The Panthers squandered two-goal leads in the third period of their previous two losses, at Carolina and Pittsburgh.

"It can't be a coincidence when it happens three games in a row," Bouwmeester said. "You've just got to get it in your head that you can't sit back and wait for bad things to happen."