Bruins Glide Past Panthers

Defenseman Zdeno Chara scored two goals to lead the Boston Bruins to a 4-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.

Boston won for the sixth time in eight games, and also broke a six-game losing streak to the Panthers dating to back to November, 2005.

Glen Metropolit and Phil Kessel also scored goals for Boston, and Tim Thomas stopped 32 shots.

Steve Montador, David Booth and Olli Jokinen scored for Florida.

The loss snapped Florida's winning streak at a season-best four games and prevented the Panthers from breaking the .500 mark for the first time this season.

Booth's wrist shot at 17:41 of the third made the score 4-2. Jokinen took a pass from Nathan Horton in front and pushed the puck past Thomas at 19:30.

Boston stretched its lead to 3-1 on Chara's second power-play goal of the game at 16:24 of the second. His shot from just inside the blue line went between Anderson's pads.

Kessel's goal at 4:57 of the third pushed Boston's advantage to 4-1. His shot from the top of the right circle went over Anderson's high stick side into the net.

The Bruins went ahead 2-0 just 39 seconds into the second period. Aaron Ward took a shot from the blue line above the right circle. Anderson blocked the shot but Metropolit got the tip in.

About two minutes later, Florida closed to 2-1 on Montador's slap shot from above the right circle. It went through Thomas's legs at 2:49.

Boston took a 1-0 lead on Chara's power-play goal at 10:11 of the first period. Marco Sturm took a pass to the right of the crease, then passed it across to Chara on the left side. Chara poked the puck past Anderson on the stick side.